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THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
In 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


httos://archive.org/details/calltopropheticsOOscha_0 


Oe hen Op 
NOV 16 1926 


THE CALL. TO Leovonrey, ecw 
PROPHETIC SERVICE 


FROM ABRAHAM TO PAUL 





ff By 
HENRY SCHAEFFER, Ph.D.,S. T. M. 


Professor of Biblical Interpretation in the Theological Seminary 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, at Chicago, Illinois, 
Author of “The Social Legislation of the Semites;”’ 
“Hebrew Tribal Economy,” ete. 


Foreword by 
CLELAND B. McAFEE, D.D. 


Professor of Systematic Theology, McCormick Theological 
Seminary, Chicago, Illinois 





New Yorx CHICAG9 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LeNDON AND EpiINBURGH 


Copyright, MCMxxvI, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Foreword 


By Crevanp B. McArerz, Px.D., D.D., LL.D. 


Professor of Systematic Theology, McCormick Theological 
Seminary, Chicago, Illinois 


a vital need does recur, it is the part of wisdom 
to examine carefully how it has been supplied in 
earlier appearances. It is difficult to suppose that there 
has ever been a time of more definite and conscious need 
among thoughtful men for an increase of prophetic voices 
than now. The confusion of the new knowledge without 
a corresponding enrichment of ethical impulse, the vastly 
increased wealth of the world without a corresponding in- 
crease of altruism for its use, the new proximity of races 
and national groups without a corresponding unity of 
spirit and many other complicating elements in social life 
—make such voices supremely desirable. But similar 
needs have appeared in the past. The Reformation period 
called for prophetic utterances and received them. Luther, 
Calvin, Knox and their fellows came in response to need 
and spoke as prophets to their time and to succeeding 
ages. A similar demand came in the earlier Christian 
days, and Augustine, Anselm, Athanasius and their fel- 
lows spoke the needed word. But the clearest instances 
of such prophetic speech are recorded for us in the 
Scriptures, covering a variety of occasions, but bringing 
a similar message. 
How were such prophets secured? What appeal 


1 


| UMAN needs are apt to be recurrent, and when 


2 FOREWORD 


brought them out of seclusion? What message had they 
to deliver when they did emerge? It is essential for us to 
know, if we are to face intelligently the need of our own 
times. Whoever can lead us through this field of investi- 
gation does us a needed service. 

Professor Schaeffer wisely turns to the Biblical ma- 
terial, both because it is richest and because it is available 
for all students. His study includes the conditions under 
which the prophet was called, the method whereby the call 
was presented to him, his response in its initial stages and 
also during the progress of his obedience to his heavenly 
vision, and the fundamental message which he had to 
deliver. This involves a study of the age in which the 
work was done, providing parallels at many points to our 
own age. It is widely and wisely done, as a reading of 
the book will reveal. It is not necessary to follow the 
argument in all details in order to accept gladly its 
fundamental lines. 

Two uses occur to me for this fresh study of the pro- 
phetic voices of Christian and pre-Christian history. One 
is for men who know themselves to be in the prophetic 
service of our own day. Many of them are ministers, 
many are technically laymen, though their ordination to 
this service is often as clear as that of any minister. 
These are men to whom their fellows look to say a word 
of wisdom for which the world waits. Three possibilities 
lie before them: they may be dumb, voiceless before the 
confusion of the age; they may talk inanities, or even 
utterly erroneous things, failing to catch or to transmit 
the message they were meant to deliver; or they may 
stand in their places courageously, sure of their message 
and unfaltering in their assurance of its value. Let them 
survey the records of their predecessors in this high office. 
How did they receive their call? How did they maintain 
their prophetic assurance? How did they deliver their 


FOREWORD 3 


message? Surely these are days for such a study in behalf 
of existing prophets of God. 

The other use of this study is for men who are facing 
the possibility of their call to prophetic service, young men 
finding their way into their own future. When such a 
man wants to know how to recognize the divine call and 
feels that the record of the divine dealing with men will 
help him, the material for his use is not abundant. Books 
which can be put into the hands of thoughtful young 
people who want guidance at this point have not been 
produced in large numbers. This one is a welcome addi- 
tion to the small number. It is, probably, the most thor- 
ough of them all and most comprehensive in its scope. It 
may be laid in the hands of young people to help them to 
learn God’s side and their own side of the call to such 
service as will make them prophets for their own time. 
Many of them will find in it the ground on which they 
can rest as they say: “ Here am I; send me!” The 
labour of years has entered into the volume. It is to be 
hoped that many labourers will find their way into pro- 
phetic service by means of it. 


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Preface 


Mott expresses keen surprise at the almost total lack 

of literature on the call to full-time Christian service. 
“Ts it not strange,’ he writes, “that there is so little 
literature defining and presenting the call to the ministry 
in terms of the present age and opportunity? What other 
subject of such importance has been so neglected?” No 
less intense is the disappointment of all serious-minded 
Christians, who are at all conscious of the alarming short- 
age of suitable ministerial candidates to man our vacant 
pulpits. 

That there is some connection, in this case, between 
literature and man-power is shown by a recent investi- 
gation of the libraries of a large variety of universities 
and theological seminaries. A limited number of pam- 
phlets and books have been written along kindred lines. 
But in none of them has any attempt been made to give us 
a thoroughgoing discussion of the rich, illuminating mate- 
rial in the Bible bearing on the subject. Books on the 
Biblical conception of the prophetic call, in its relation to 
modern needs, are conspicuous by their absence. 

The result is that the atmosphere in which the potential 
preacher moves, is charged with the most nebulous kind 
of uncertainty as to what really constitutes a call to the 
ministry. The call comes and it is left unheeded, for the 
reason that the basic principles of such a call have not 
been made sufficiently clear. 

Various attempts have been made to remedy the situa- 
tion. We have our college secretaries, student-pastors, 


5 


i his Future Leadership of the Church, Dr. John R. 


6 PREFACE 


vocational conferences, lifework discussions and Father- 
and-Son banquets. All these efforts are very excellent as 
far as they go. But sporadic recruiting campaigns are, at 
best, only relief measures. We must go to the heart of 
the problem, if a continuous and more adequate supply 
of the best young men is to be secured for the great work 
of the ministry. 

For some years the present writer has given himself 
quite definitely to the work of preaching and talking to 
young men upon the meaning of the prophetic call to the 
young man of today. The call-experiences of the principal 
prophets and preachers of Old and New Testament times 
are both rich and varied, and full of illustrative themes 
for the presentation of the claims of the ministry. Believ- 
ing that the Scriptures are the best guide in such matters, 
the author of these pages has endeavoured, on the basis of 
a careful study of the facts, to bring out the Biblical view 
of the call to ministerial service. Five years of delightful 
exploring in the depths of Scripture have brought to light . 
a veritable mine of exceedingly valuable information and 
illuminating thought on a highly important and most 
interesting subject. 

This book is really more than a discussion of the call- 
experience. It also contains a thorough treatment of the 
message and mission of the one called and commissioned 
for a specific task. In every case, the call is a call to 
service. 


FI? 


Maywood, Illinots. 


Contents 


INTRODUCTION 


Method of Presentation—The Call-Experience and Modern 


Psychology—The Biblical or Religious Viewpoint Preferred— 
Variety of the Calls in Scripture—Concrete Illustrations—Re- 
actions ito the: Call’ ofl menvice. nie wh: sey ie eal ae LES 


f I 
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 
His Early History—Babylonian Moon-Worship—Religion of 
the Patriarch Not a Product of His Idolatrous Surround- 
ings—A New Epoch in Religious Experience—Call of the 
First Prophet—Glorious Promises and a Glorious Venture— 
The Willing Obedience of a Self-Surrendering, Heroic Faith 
—The Pioneer Missionary and His Inspiring Example—The 
Divine Call and How It May Be Lost-—Need of Consecrated. 
Personal Service—Every Spiritual Son of the Patriarch a 
Potential PNirssionar yoy yee re TO a RON UT i 


II 
THE CALL OF MOSES 


Moses the Prophet—lIsrael’s Election for World-Service and 
the Task of Liberation—Call of Moses—The Burning Bush— 
How God Reveals Himself to Us—Reverence in Religion— 
Purpose of the Vision—Religion in Action—Reluctance of a 
Disillusioned Man to Undertake a Difficult Mission—Personal 
Unfitness and the Assurance of Divine Help—Prophet’s 
Commission Based on a Fuller Revelation of the Name and 
Character of God—His Credentials—Slowness of Speech and 
Real Eloquence—The Sin of Self-Distrust Rebuked—Whole- 
Hearted Surrender—Message of the Burning Bush for the 
ACEI TE COREIII Vay Lele wipe canb india wraleintc sturaiarunane aug Glatt team oh alae! al ls 


Ill 


THE CALL OF SAMUEL 


Hannah’s Vow—The Child Samuel at Shiloh—-Time of Re- 
ligious Declension and Moral Laxity—Philistine Domination 
—The Ministering Acolyte in the Temple—Faithfulness in 
Little Things—Call to Prophetic Service—Practical Lessons— 
How God Speaks to Us Today—Our Lifework.............. 


7 


11 


41 


8 CONTENTS 


IV 


THE CALL OF AMOS 


The Shepherd of Tekoa—The First Writing Prophet—Con- 
ditions of the Time: Political, Social and Religious—The 
Prophetic Consciousness and the Inner Urge—The Prophet 
of Justice and His Message of Doom—Ritual Minus Ethics— 
A Subservient, Royal Chaplain—Divine Righteousness and the 
Moral Aspects of Religion—Tendency of Our Time to Di- 
vorce Religion from the Affairs of Common Life—A False, 


Political Philosophy—The Value of Things and the Human © 


Equation in Modern Society—Social Sins—Creed and Con- 
duct—Wayside Shrines—God Speaking to Us Through the 
‘Thander-Tones ‘of Amos Pie ee Gey ia Os gene ates 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 


The Prophet of Love—Political Apostasy—Moral Evils— 
Nature-Worship and Its Effect on Family Life—A Shocking 
Domestic Experience—Faithless Gomer and the Love of a 
Wronged Husband—Disloyal Israel and the Inexhaustible 
Depths of Divine Love—The Man Hosea and His Relation to 
Gomer—His Prophetic Call—A Message of Permanent Value 
—Present-Day Idolatry—Social Impurity and the Divorce 
Evil—Consecration to Loving Service...........cceeeeccceee 


VI 
THE CALL OF ISAIAH 


The Prophet of Faith—Political Success and the Spirit of 
Pride—Materialistic Unbelief and a Lack of Faith in the 
Lord of Hosts—Anti-Military Policy—A Prophetic Witness 
to the Staying-Power of Faith in the Divine Sovereign—The 
Object of Faith—Foreign Alliances and Religion—Economic 
Evils and Moral Corruption—The Temple Vision and Its 
Effect Upon the Pardoned Sinner—Volunteering for Service. 


VII 
THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 


His Birthplace—By Nature a Psychologist—The Personal 
Note in Religion—Religious Background—A Superficial 
Reformation—Deep-Seated Piety—Moral Conditions—Society 
Doomed—The Prophet’s Call and Equipment—A Revolution- 
izing Dynamic and the Constructive Power of Divine Truth— 
Chur Tas See ae Wa A ie glia acta Wale aid ‘ahd sa ne MNCL OE anne Me 


65 


82 


97 


CON TENTS 


dst vit 
VV THE CABL OF EZEKIEL 


Priestly Origin—Religious, Social and Political Conditions— 
Inaugural Vision—The Message Assimilated—Pastoral Over- 
sight—The Watch-Tower of a Superior Spiritual Vision— 
Spiritual Realities—The Hebrew Exiles and the Absolute 
Sovereignty of Jehovah—The Immanent God—Ideal Com- 
monwealth—The Pastor’s Inspiration—Man’s Frailty and 
Divine Omnipotence—God’s Sovereign Claim Upon Every 
SOTO PAVLAITS ert cic eanty erty eat clei et Aietuis semen ane mas Cou tay 


IX 
THE CALL OF JONAH 


Practical Aspects—The Commissioning Voice and the Un- 
willing Foreign Missionary—Temporary Evasion of God’s 
Active Sovereignty — Jewish Nationalism—The Withered 
Gourd—Prophecy Conditional—Repentance and the Non- 
Fulfilment of Threatened Evil—God’s All-Embracing Love— 
Our Modern Ninevehs—Discouragements—Fleeing Jonahs— 
Prophetic Universalism and a Selfish, Petty, Nationalistic 
Spirit—The Divine Mandate and Our Responsibility......... 


x 
THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 


The Prophesied Forerunner—Early Influences—Desert Back- 
ground—Social, Religious and Political Conditions—The Call 
—The Herald’s Relation to the Coming Messiah—Kingdom 
of Heaven—Spiritual Preparedness—Meaning of Repentance 
—The Baptizer—Preparing the King’s Highway............. 


XI 
THE CALL OF JESUS 


Theological Conception—Historical Preparation and Call— 
Baptismal Consecration for Messianic Service—Three As- 
pects of the Messiah-Test—Spiritual Program of Jesus—His 
Sense of Mission—A Compelling Motive—Glad Tidings— 
Overcoming Our Temptations—The Unfinished Task—Our 
Raving) Response to: Human Need iics sca hics ota ce vest oes 


XII 
THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 


Interviewing Jesus—The First Followers—Call of the Four 
Fishermen to Permanent Discipleship—Fishers of Men—An 
Object-Lesson—Call of Matthew—His First Missionary Ef- 


168 


183 


10 CONTENTS 


fort—Sanctimonious Fault-Finders—The Physician and His 
Patients—A Gospel for Sinners—-Prophetic Requirement of 
Humility, Faith and Loving Compassion—The Master’s Com- 
passion for a Shepherdless People—Exhortation to Prayer— 
Selection of the Twelve and the Threefold Purpose of Their 
Appointment—Names and Characteristics of the Twelve 
Apostles—Preparation for Service—Mission of the Twelve 
and of the Seventy—Practical Lessons: The Missionary 
Spirit—Permanent Value of the Call to Apostolic Service— 
Interpreting the Call to Our Own Age—Marks of a Genuine 
Call—Obeying the Call—Real Followers—An Adequate Mo- 
tive—Prayer as a Preparation for Service—Biblical Idea of 
Stewardship—An Attainable Ideal—Spiritual Equation— 
Would-Be Disciples—The Enabling Power of the Call of 
Christ—Consecration and Concentration.................05. 


XIIl 


THE CARD OR  DEUE APs Tite sl ir i 
GENTILES 


Paul and Christianity—Two Extremes in Modern Interpreta- 


tion—Early Influences—-The Persecuting Pharisee—Threefold 
Account of His Conversion—The Damascus Experience and 
Paul’s Theology—Transfigured Cross—Repentance— Meaning 
of Faith—-Paul’s Prayers—Gentile Mission—Comparison of 
the Threefold Account in Acts—Consecutive Story of Epoch- 
Making Event—Testimony of Pauline Epistles—Twofold 
Aspect of Divine Epiphany—So-Called Explanations of Da- 
mascus Experience—Limitations of Modern Psychology—No 
Adequate Reason for Rejecting Paul’s Testimony—The Bible 
Our Best Authority in Realm of Religious Experience— 
World-Wide: Evangelization (cio Ui Loan a salar sett Renae 


265 


Introduction 


, HE material in the following chapters has been 
gathered, for the most part, from the great store- 
house of divine truth. In discussing our topic we 

have endeavoured to explain the turning-point in the lives 

of the prophets and apostles from a Biblical or religious 
rather than a psychological point of view. Psychology 
has its limitations, especially in the realm of religious 
experience (compare chapter XIII). We shall never suc- 
ceed, by purely psychological means, in unravelling the 
call-experience of a prophet or preacher and in analyzing 
it without any residue. Such an experience marks a dis- 
tinct spiritual crisis in the life of the individual, through 
which he becomes conscious of his call from God and his 
mission to the people. In describing the event the proph- 
ets do not speak of a resolution or purpose, framed by 
themselves, to devote themselves to their prophetic task. 

They would not presume to speak for God on their own 

authority. They have been divinely commissioned to act 

as His messengers. Gladly would they evade the call, if 
they only could. But they are under divine compulsion. 

We are told in so many words that in a moment of spir- 

itual exaltation they had been transported into the divine 

presence. God was so near and so real to them that they 
actually had a vision of the Deity. They were absolutely 
certain that they had met God and that He had spoken to 
them. A great religious experience is a tremendous re- 
sponsibility. They could not leave the presence of the 
Most High without receiving a message from the divine 


11 


12 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Sovereign. The man who has seen God must testify for 
Him. It is aside from the point to argue that this vision 
of God had no objective reality and that it was a sub- 
jective experience. We may be quite sure that to these 
seers of old the vision had objective reality. To see God 
—no matter how—is the all-important thing. 

There is great variety in the call-experiences of the 
members of the goodly fellowship of the prophets and 
apostles. Then, too, considerable difference is to be noted 
in the thought-content of their messages. But this is as 
it should be. 

Most of the prophets appear on the scene of history 
with startling suddenness and, seemingly, without proper 
introduction. We feel sometimes that we should like to 
know more about their early history. But in the written 
pages of the prophets all such biographical material is re- 
duced toa minimum. We might almost say that it is con- 
spicuous by its absence. It must be borne in mind that we 
are dealing with religious history. Unlike the modern 
historian, the prophet does not speak of “men who have 
made history.” According to the latter, God alone makes 
history. Man, to be sure, has a part in the process, but 
he is only a means to an end. Without God he can do 
nothing. The Creator, not the creature, is to be exalted 
and magnified. Human biography, therefore, is no im- 
mediate concern of prophetic literature. What there is of 
it is merely incidental to the narrative. The religious in- 
terpretation predominates. As interpreters of religion, the 
prophets have to do with the facts of religious experience. 
They are interested, not so much in the history of the in- 
dividual, as in the relation which he sustains to’God and 
his fellowmen. Anything that has a bearing on that rela- 
tion is of sufficient importance to receive some attention at 
least. The call-experience is a case in point. As a rule 
some reference is made to it. The prophet regards it as 


INTRODUCTION 13 


the decisive moment in his life, which started him on his 
career as a “ speaker for God.” He alludes to the event 
not for its own sake. As a fact of religious experience it 
has a religious meaning, and as such it deserves a place in 
the sacred record. Where the call is not expressly men- 
tioned, the writer presupposes it. 

The facts of the call-experience furnish instructive ex- 
amples of the variety of the calls in Scripture. They are 
far from uniform or stereotype, as is to be expected under 
the circumstances. How Abraham was called we do not 
know. In Genesis 15:1 we read, “ The word of Jehovah 
came unto Abram in a vision.” While the reference here 
is to a subsequent event in the life of the patriarch, it is 
nevertheless interesting to note that the call may have 
come to him in the form of a vision. The vision, just 
alluded to, was probably a night vision, to judge from the 
starry heavens, mentioned in Genesis 15:5. According to 
chapter 46 verse 2, God spoke to Jacob in “ the visions of 
the night.” Did God speak to Abram, while he was yet in 
Babylonia, in a “ vision of the night,” or in the form of a 
theophany by day? Our question must remain unan- 
swered for lack of further evidence. One thing, how- 
ever, cannot be doubted and that is the fact of the 
call-experience itself. His preparatory experiences are in- 
volved in obscurity. All that we have is a brief reference 
to his Babylonian antecedents. In the midst of his idol- 
atrous surroundings he is suddenly confronted by Jeho- 
vah, who commands him to leave Babylonia for religious 
reasons, He is convinced that God is speaking to him 
and he obeys. In the ensuing pilgrimage the migrating 
patriarch never loses the sweet consciousness of God’s 
abiding presence. It is a remarkable demonstration of 
faith. Abraham is not the natural fruitage of the nature- 
worship of Mesopotamia. The facts are against such an 
assumption. Somehow he had met the living God and 


14 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


heard His voice. The experience was the starting-point 
of a remarkable career. Faith is a glorious adventure! 

The Egyptian background in the life of Moses does not 
explain his prophetic career. Nor did he import his God 
from the land of Midian. Jehovah is not a local Kenite 
deity who was raised to the dignity of the God of Israel. 
It is the God of the fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac 
and of Jacob, who appears to Moses in the burning bush. 
The flaming bush becomes a sanctuary. When God saw 
that the reverent investigator turned aside to observe the 
remarkable phenomenon, “ He called him.” The call to 
service is more than mere-accident or caprice. Essential 
to a call, in this case, is the element of reverence and sin- 
cerity, a receptive mind and heart, and a willingness to 
listen and to hear what God has to say. The message 
comes, when Moses “ turns aside to see.” Standing in the 
sanctuary of God’s presence, he receives a call to coura- 
geous service. God speaks to him, and he speaks to the 
people. The shepherd of Midian is sent to the sheepfolds 
of Goshen with authority to speak and to act for the 
Shepherd of Israel. 

When God calls He begins early. Samuel had a pious 
mother who dedicated her firstborn to God’s service even 
before he was born. The young acolyte received part of 
his training in the temple at Shiloh under the tutorship of 
Eli. The call of God came with repeated emphasis along 
the path of present duty. He hears a voice calling him to 
prophetic service. His response is, ‘ Speak, Lord; for 
Thy servant heareth.” He was a great prophet. But his 
greatness is not the result of his preparatory training in 
the temple, neither is he the product of the age in which 
he lived. Modern historians affirm that great men are the 
product of great times. This is not true in the realm of 
spiritual things. The prophet Samuel was not a child of 
his time. He was called when the word of God was 


INTRODUCTION 15 


scarce in the land. It was a time of spiritual declension 
and of moral decay. An age like this cannot give birth to 
such a prophet, apart from divine intervention. God 
Himself raised up Samuel in response to his mother’s 
prayers and called him, in the hushed silence of the night, 
“ere the lamp of God went out in the temple.” 

Amos tells us that he was taken “from behind the 
flock,” as Elisha was taken from behind the ploughteam. 
The shepherd-prophet from the Tekoan hills, like the dis- 
ciples of Jesus, left all to obey the call he had received. 
How he obtained his call is not certain. Some believe that 
he had a vision; others, that he had heard the voice of 
God through the momentous events then transpiring on 
the political horizon. He is convinced that the Assyrians 
will soon come from the north and punish Israel for its 
sins. This conviction, it is said, gave rise to the threaten- 
ing tone of his prophecies. We are not saying that Amos 
was unable to detect the signs of the times. But there is 
more to be said about his call-experience. He had a pro- 
found religious experience. That day he felt as if God 
had actually taken hold of him while he was engaged in 
his ordinary pursuit. “ And Jehovah said, Go, prophesy 
unto My people Israel.”” What was there for him to do? 
“The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” 
He preaches because he must, and not because the new 
vocation is more profitable than the occupation of a shep- 
herd and fig-cultivator. The consciousness of his having 
received a divine call is real and vivid. He is no pro- 
fessional prophet, like the members of the prophetic 
guilds, whose delirious utterances are paid for in cold 
cash and who prophesy smooth things. He will proclaim 
to the self-complacent calf-worshippers at Bethel the 
much-needed message of social justice as an integral part 
of religion. This may neither be popular nor profitable. 
It may even be dangerous. But what of it? He will 


16 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


preach his message in the face of all the weak-kneed, 
time-serving Amaziahs in the land! A righteous, moral 
Deity demands it! He is under divine orders. He has 
seen (compare 1:1; 7:1, 4, 7, 8; 8:1, 2; 9:1) some 
aspect of the divine. Since then divine necessity is laid 
upon him. 

Hosea, his companion prophet of the north, puts the 
emphasis not so much upon the logical necessity of right- 
eousness as upon the seat of action or the inner motive. 
Amos was shocked to find-that the people of his day were 
trying to make up for their bad morals by offering bribes 
to the Deity. Sacrifices abounded in the worship of the 
ritualists at Bethel and elsewhere. This bribe-idea in re- 
ligion was a noticeable feature of the idolatrous worship 
among Israel’s neighbors. Amos appears on the scene and 
says that God is not to be bribed by sacrificial offerings, 
like the idols of their heathen neighbors. Jehovah is a 
righteous God who demands social righteousness as a part 
of religion. True, says Hosea, but how are the people, 
with their low ethical ideas, ever to do what is right and 
just toward God and their fellowmen? This cold bar- 
gaining spirit savours too much of a coldly calculating 
commercialism. There is_no love in their religion. What 
they need is a sufficient motive or driving dynamic from 
within. And this he finds in love—a holy love. He is the 
prophet of love, who could illustrate his message from 
what had happened to him in his own home. Early in his | 
life he fell in love with an attractive girl by the name of 
Gomer, whom he married. After a time the young woman 
proved unfaithful. Gomer and another man eloped, leav- 
ing the prophet with a torn and bleeding heart. It was a 
terrible shock to him, but somehow he could not forget 
the wife of his youth. Loving her still, he sought her 
everywhere. Meanwhile the paramour had sold her into 
slavery. The wronged husband redeems her, takes her 


INTRODUCTION 17 


back and pleads with her, reminding her of the covenant 
which they had made together. 

What a striking text from which to preach the love of 
God for a wayward people! Jehovah is the wronged hus- 
band; Israel, the erring bride. Out of his grief for 
Gomer there comes to him a vision of the loving heart of 
God grieving over His erring children. The spiritual out- 
come of the domestic experience was that ‘‘ God is Love.” 
It was more than a natural psychological process. A 
wronged husband does not necessarily become a prophet. 
More is needed than a domestic trial before a man can 
proclaim a deep religious truth. The tragic experience of 
a ruined home may colour the prophet’s message, but it 
does not explain the spiritual truth which he teaches. 
What Hosea taught, he had learned in the school of God. 
Being a man of religious sensibilities, he could, with God’s 
help, draw a deep religious lesson from the experiences of 
his wedded life. 

Probably the most important Old Testament contribu- 
tion to religion came from the prophet of faith. Amos 
had taught the necessity of putting religion into practice 
seven days a week. This was of tremendous importance 
to an age which had divorced religion from life. Religion 
has its man-to-man relation. No man can serve God in 
His sanctuary, whether at Bethel or Gilgal, and then for- 
get to serve Him in his own home, in the world of busi- 
ness and in his daily contacts with men. That this might 
be accomplished Hosea said that a man must have the 
love of God in his heart. The mainsprings of action must 
be touched and set in motion. Love—divine love—will do 
it. But how is this love to be brought to bear upon the 
hearts and lives of men? Isaiah replies, By faith in the 
covenant-keeping God of Israel. The prophet had grown 
up in an age of material prosperity, characterized by ma- 
terialism in religion. The long and brilliant reign of Uz- 


18 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ziah had made men irreligious, materialistic and proud of 
what they had accomplished by their own wisdom and 
strength. They trusted in their earthly possessions, in 
military resources and in the arm of flesh rather than in 
the sovereign power of the Holy One of Israel. God was 
no longer a power in their lives. They believed, as we 
have said, in the power of material wealth, in gold and 
silver shekels, in military alliances, and in the purchased 
protection of earthly potentates. The sin of the age was 
pride and unbelief. Pride is the opposite of faith. With- 
out humility there can be no faith. Self-sufficiency, pride 
and arrogance offer no congenial soil for faith. ‘The lat- 
ter requires for its growth and further development a 
lowly and receptive heart. 

But where were such hearts to be found in the days of 
Uzziah, whose pride was more or less typical of the spirit 
of the age? In his palmy days, men looked up to him as 
their ideal of what a man should be. Time was, when 
the youthful Isaiah was numbered among these hero- 
worshippers. But Uzziah was smitten with leprosy and 
he died and was buried in a leper’s tomb. With a sad 
and heavy heart Isaiah went up to the temple to pray. 
His earthly hero gone, his heavenly Hero now appears on 
the horizon of his life. He sees in a vision of the en- 
throned Lord, the sovereign Ruler of the universe, the 
King of kings, surrounded by a host of heavenly atten- 
dants, with veiled faces, evermore singing their antiphonal 
hymn of praise in honour of a thrice holy God. That 
Isaiah on this occasion saw God with the inner eye, or 
that the vision was a subjective experience transpiring in 
the inner consciousness is hardly an established fact. We 
are not so sure that it was an ecstatic vision, brought about 
by a vivid imagination on the part of a man who had been 
stirred to the point of ecstasy by the singing of the Levit- 
ical choirs on Mount Zion. Doubtless the service was im- 


INTRODUCTION 19 


pressive and the singing uplifting. But Isaiah’s temple 
experience was certainly more than the esthetic response 
to what he saw and heard. What we can say about it is 
that the subjective and the objective, the natural and the 
supernatural, met and Isaiah hadi the vision which he de- 
scribes in chapter 6. In explaining the vision we must not 
forget that the prophet, at any rate, regarded it as ob- 
jectively real. It is so real in fact that he exclaims, “ Woe 
is me, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of 
Hosts!” He is painfully aware of the contrast between 
God’s holiness and his own uncleanness. But he is ab- 
solved and responds to the call of service. His call marks 
the beginning of a great prophetic career. He gathers up 
in his own person the faith of Abraham, the leadership of 
Moses, the boldness of Amos and the spirituality of 
Jeremiah. — 

In describing his call, Jeremiah does not say, “ Jehovah 
appeared unto me,” or “ Jehovah took me,” but “ The 
word of Jehovah came unto me saying, I have appointed 
thee a prophet unto the nations.” He was predestined to 
prophetic service before he was born. This act of conse- 
cration, according to the prophet, did not proceed from a 
pious mother, but from Jehovah Himself. God not only 
keeps step, so to speak, with the onward march of histor- 
ical events. He makes His plans long in advance; indeed, 
He selects and appoints His spokesmen from eternity it- 
self. But the mere thought of predestination does not 
prevent Jeremiah from doubting his ability to serve in 
such a capacity. He is too young and inexperienced. The 
function of one who speaks for God is that he be able to 
speak. He has never had occasion to speak on such tre- 
mendous issues. ‘‘ Then the Lord put forth His hand and 
touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, 
I have put My words in thy mouth.” He actually feels 
the touch of the divine hand upon his lips. God Himself 


20 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ordains him. There is no reference to a winged seraph 
who acts as an intermediary. God Himself draws near — 
and takes complete charge of the ordination service. 
The transcendent God of Isaiah has become the imma- 
nent God, who enters into intimate relations with the 
individual soul. 

This nearness of God and the assurance of His contin- 
ued help left no room for further doubt in the young 
man’s mind as to what response he ought to make to the 
divine announcement. Still trembling with emotion, he 
accepts the responsibility. The call is too real to be ig- 
nored. It is just as real as the reality of the divine pres- 
ence. A man cannot have such an experience without 
being pressed into service. Just what that experience was 
is difficult to explain. Jeremiah simply relates what he 
heard and felt during the momentous encounter. No 
mention is made of an external appearance of the Deity, 
neither does the narrator allude to a vision. Some writers 
explain the call as an inner experience. It is claimed that 
Jeremiah’s prophetic activity is a reaction against the 
cruel reign of Manasseh. But if that is true why did it 
require a half-century of persecution and insult before the 
members of the Jewish church could find a prophetic 
spokesman? The statement is made that no one dared to 
protest for fear of dying a martyr’s death. But since 
when is a real prophet afraid to deliver God’s message to 
kings and potentates? 

In this connection we naturally think of Moses and 
Pharaoh, of Samuel and Saul, of Nathan and David, of 
Elijah and Ahab, of Amos and Jeroboam II, of Isaiah and 
Ahaz, of John the Baptist and Herod Antipas, of Jesus 
and His enemies, of Paul and Nero. Why should a 
prophet belie his name when a persecutor sits upon the 
throne? The genuine prophet is a courageous man. Had 
Jeremiah lived in the time of Manasseh he would have 


INTRODUCTION 21 


shown the same prophetic courage that he manifested 
later. It was no easier to be a prophet from the year 
626 B. Cc. onward than it was several decades before. 
Equally untenable is the assumption that Jeremiah began 
to prophesy out of a sense of duty to the people whom he 
loved. The catastrophic events of the near future would 
find them unprepared and he must speak to their hearts 
and prepare their minds for the things that were to come. 
But a sympathetic disposition alone will never prompt a 
man to become a prophet. He must have the prophetic 
gift. This gift is conferred through the enabling power 
of the call to service. Jeremiah was convinced that he 
had such a call. The call may have assumed’ the form of 
a prophetic vision. That he does not explicitly mention - 
it, does not prove the contrary, especially when both 
Isaiah and Ezekiel had such inaugural visions. 

The call-experience of Ezekiel is described with great 
detail in the first three chapters of his book. The prophet 
of the exile gives an elaborate description of the vision 
which came to him in Babylonia in the year 593 Bn. c. A 
divine chariot, drawn by cherubim, approaches from the 
north with whirlwind velocity. It is a throne-wagon. 
The enthroned divine Sovereign has “the appearance of 
aman.” Falling upon his face in the august presence of 
the Almighty, he hears a voice saying unto him, “ Son of 
man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee,” for 
“TI will send thee to the children of Israel and thou shalt 
speak My words unto them.” God Himself inspires the 
messenger who is to speak with divine authority. This is 
made plain to him by the symbolical eating of an inscribed 
roll which had been handed to him for that purpose. 
Having thus assimilated its contents, he could say in a 
very real sense, “Thus saith the Lord.” The message 
must become a part*of the prophet’s personality before he 
can speak for God. A superficial acquaintance with the 


22 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Word is not enough, least of all under the trying experi- 
ences of exilic existence. The youthful prophet is keenly 
aware of this, but is prevailed upon to undertake his diffi- 
cult mission. Now that the Hebrew nation has been prac- 
tically destroyed, he is to gather the scattered exiles and 
minister to their spiritual needs. He is to be a pastor 
with a message for the individual. True to his mission, he 
sounds the individual note in religion. 

Concerning the call of Jonah we read, “The word of 
Jehovah came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry out against 
it.” How the call came is not explained. All that may 
be gathered from the above text is that he heard the voice 
of Jehovah commissioning him to go to Nineveh. The 
voice which the prophet hears is commonly taken to mean 
the inner voice. But there is reason to suppose that the 
voice was accompanied by a vision of some kind, as in 
the case of Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jonah, 
in any event, derives the voice from God who spoke to 
him. ‘The voice was so real and so insistent that the un- 
willing missionary fled “ from the presence of the Lord.” 

The same prophetic formula, so frequently met with in 
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as well as in the Minor Prophets, 
occurs in only one place in the New Testament. Luke 
3:2 reads, “ The word of God came unto John in the 
wilderness.” John the Baptist is the connecting link be- 
tween the Old Testament and the New. Aaronic descent, 
Samuel-like consecration and a pious home are among the 
eatly influences which touched and shaped the young 
prophet-life. The desert-loving prophet has much in com- 
mon with Elijah. The fearless preacher speaks with pro- 
phetic authority, proclaiming “the baptism of repentance 
unto the remission of sins,” as a preparation for the Mes- 
sianic age. He had a prophetic call. How he obtained it 
we are not told. A desert background would naturally 


INTRODUCTION 23 


lend itself to meditation and reflection. But did the pro- 
phetic call of the Baptist originate in a contemplative mind 
given to spiritual meditation? He refers to himself as a 
“voice.” Is this the voice that speaks to a man from 
within? Was it the result of an intuitive process? Is 
it the inner call that the above writer has in mind when 
he says, “The word of God came unto John in the 
wilderness?” 

While it is tempting to assume this, we cannot help 
calling attention to the call-experiences of Amos, Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel. In the case of Amos and Ezekiel the vision 
plays an important part. “The word of God came to 
Jeremiah ” possibly in the form of prophetic vision. The 
vision as an element in the call-experience of John the 
Baptist is not to be overlooked. He, too, it appears, is a 
prophetic seer, who sees the Spirit descending like a dove 
upon the Nazarene. Prior to this “I knew Him not, but 
He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto 
me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and 
remaining on him, the same is He that baptizeth with the 
Holy Spirit. And I saw and bare record that this is the 
Son of God” (John 1: 33-34). He “saw and bare 
record.” The inference that the call-experience of John 
the Baptist assumed the form of a prophetic vision, ac- 
companied by a voice, commissioning him to preach, is 
almost irresistible. Like the prophetic seers of more 
ancient times, he had a vision and heard a voice speaking 
to him. To him it was the voice of God. “The word of 
God had come to him,” and he repeated to the people the 
substance of what he had heard. God-had spoken to him, 
and the time had now come for him to begin his prophetic 
activity. 

As in the case of Jeremiah, the call of Jesus is referred 
back to eternity. Historically, however, the call of Jesus 
to Messianic service coincides with His baptism. ‘This is 


24 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


preceded by thirty years of quiet preparation in the home, 
the shop and the synagogue. The prophetic summons to 
the water baptism of John signalizes the beginning of 
Christ’s public ministry. By it He was officially called 
and anointed for His work by the measureless gift of the 
Holy Spirit, which also included the gift of miraculous 
power. ‘The baptism of John, in this case, is not a rite of 
purification from sin, but rather an act of self-consecration 
on the part of Israel’s Messiah. By a voice made audible 
to His consciousness the sinless Jesus is designated as the 
Messiah of prophetic promise. Already the cross casts 
its shadow over the baptismal waters. The momentous 
scene is succeeded by a period of retirement in the wilder- 
ness of Judah. In the ensuing struggle with temptation, 
the culminating point is reached in the preparation of 
Jesus for His Messianic career. Jesus goes forth from 
the mighty struggle victorious, ready to undertake His 
God-given task. He accepts His mission with a heart full 
of compassion and the tenderest love for those whom He 
came to save. The call of Jesus, then, is the Shepherd’s 
loving response to human need. Self-sacrificing: love is 
the only adequate motive for Christian service. Special 
attention is called in this connection to pages 346 ff., and 
to the sermon on stewardship (pp. 357 ff.). 

To provide for present and future needs, Jesus, in the 
early part of His ministry, selects and calls twelve young 
men “that they might be with Him ” constantly and learn 
of Him. This constant association with the great ‘Teacher 
and Preacher is to be their training school for apostolic 
service. If the disciples are to proclaim the glad tidings 
of the Messianic age, they must sit at the Master’s feet, 
catch the inspiration of His wonderful personality, hear 
His dynamic words, witness His mighty deeds and ulti- 
mately rise to the height of a victorious faith in the Son 
of God. Thus equipped, they are sent out on their first 


INTRODUCTION 25 


missionary journey to the people of their native province. 
Ripening harvest fields in other areas call for additional 
helpers. The preaching tour in Galilee is succeeded by | 
the mission of the Seventy, whom Christ had selected 
from an ever-widening circle of devoted followers. It 
was a very successful home mission effort. Gradually the 
field expands beyond the borders of Palestine, and other 
workers are added to the missionary forces of the apos- 
tolic age. Among these is the greatest missionary of all 
ages—Saul of Tarsus. 

Paul, the foreign missionary, was born in the Jewish 
colony of a Greek-speaking metropolitan city in the 
Roman province of Cilicia. His father was a Pharisee of 
the tribe of Benjamin, enjoying the rights of Roman citi- 
zenship. Young Saul inherited the same privilege. Of 
far greater importance for his subsequent development 
was the moulding influence of a Pharisaic home, where 
piety was hereditary. As a matter of political necessity 
he learned to respect the name of Cesar. But to a tribal 
descendant of Benjamin, King Saul was the greater hero. 
He may respect Czesar, but to him the idea of burning in- 
cense to the local image of the emperor is repulsive in the 
extreme. Deep down in his heart the son of the Pharisee 
clings to Jehovah, the God of Israel, who is also the God 
of all the earth. The growing lad receives part of his edu- 
cation in the local synagogue, learns a trade, enters the 
rabbinical college in Jerusalem, sits at the feet of the 
foremost rabbi of the age and eventually takes the lead in 
the persecution of the infant Church. 

But the zealous persecutor is suddenly converted on the 
road to Damascus. According to Acts, he sees a super- 
natural light above the brightness of the noon-day sun, 
hears a heavenly voice, engages in a conversation of some 
length with the risen Christ and receives a brief outline of 
the work he is to do. The appearance was not visionary, 


26 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


but actual. The light which he saw was the reflection of 
Christ’s heavenly glory, revealing to the persecutor the 
Shepherd of the persecuted flock. He never doubted for 
a moment that he had seen Jesus with his bodily eyes and 
heard His commissioning voice. Of this he is absolutely 
sure. He takes particular pains at Czsarea to make clear 
to his audience that he had witnessed an external appear- 
ance of the glorified Son of God. But, says the psycholo- 
gist, Paul’s language must be taken in a figurative sense. 
In Galatians 1:16, for instance, he speaks almost like a 
modern psychologist, of a revelation of the Son of God 
“in me.” The revelation of Christ to Paul, it is argued, 
was not external but internal; not objective in the philo- 
sophic sense but subjective. This explanation would be 
quite acceptable were it not for two passages in First 
Corinthians, not to speak of the threefold account in Acts, 
where Paul emphasizes the external aspect of his apostolic 
call and commission. Putting all these passages together, 
we conclude that the Damascus experience was both ex- 
ternal and internal. It was not a natural psychological 
process, as some would infer from the “ goads,” men- 
tioned in Acts 26:14. Saul was not gradually coming 
nearer to Christianity before he was converted. His sud- 
den conversion and call to apostolic service was not the 
natural outcome of an intellectual and moral fermentation, 
which had been agitating his soul for some time. 
According to the explicit testimony of Paul himself, the 
mighty change was not wrought out in the laboratory of 
saul’s own thoughts or amid the compunctions of con- 
science. From a mental and moral point of view his 
condition before conversion was not favourable to a vis- 
ion of Jesus. Physical factors had nothing to do with the 
vision, nor did it originate in the physiological constitu- 
tion of the man. He was not converted by the ordinary 
operation of spiritual laws within the realm of human 


INTRODUCTION 27 


personality. The conversion and call of the apostle can- 
not be confined to the natural sphere of every-day life. 
It is a sudden transformation, an unheralded event, a 
unique experience. A gradual psychological process is 
ruled out by the evidence that we have. Paul’s physical, 
mental, moral and spiritual equipment does not explain 
the miraculous event. The Damascus experience was 
more than a spiritual revelation of Christ to the soul, 
accompanied by favourable conditions from without. 
Paul saw Christ from without as well as from within and 
heard an audible voice, commissioning him to preach the 
faith which he had sought to destroy. As a fact of re- 
ligious experience it is unique. In the annals of conver- 
sion there is nothing like it. While the spiritual crises of 
the most Paul-like men in history may be studied with 
much profit, the ever-memorable scene on the Damascus 
road stands quite alone in a class by itself. 

Reference has been made to the variety of the calls in 
Scripture. No less varied are the responses to the call of 
service. Truly sublime is the faith of Abraham. The 
aged patriarch obeys the voice of God, not knowing ex- 
actly whither he went. Samuel replies, “Speak, Lord; 
for Thy servant heareth.” It is not for the servant to 
procrastinate when the Master speaks. Amos does not 
seem to have resisted his call for a moment; he left the 
flock to follow what to him was an irresistible call. With 
a lion-like courage, the fearless shepherd leaps into the 
arena of Israelitish life, singing his doom-song in the 
presence of a scoffing, threatening aristocracy. The na- 
tural ardour of Isaiah is quickened into an eager response 
by the consciousness that his sins had been forgiven. The 
prophet of faith is not driven to his prophetic task; he 
volunteers for service in response to a call expressed in 
the most general terms. In the fulness of time “ the word 
of God came to John in the wilderness.” The herald runs 


28 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in advance of the royal chariot; a voice is heard with no 
uncertain sound, announcing that the King is near. There 
is no tarrying at such a time; the fleet-footed messenger 
must be on his way. John the Baptist appears at the 
fords of Jordan with the suddenness of an Elijah come 
to life again. He is a man of great spiritual power who 
is resolved to drive men into the penitential floods of re- 
pentance. In his eyes there is neither king nor commoner, 
neither priest nor layman; all are sinners in need of the 
cleansing waters. The rugged preacher has a keen sense 
of duty. The word of the Lord has come to him to preach 
repentance and the herald must deliver his message. 
When the King calls the herald forgets all about self. He 
does not express a contrary wish, hoping that the King 
may yet modify His orders to suit the convenience of the 
runner. A word of command is sufficient to send him on 
his errand. 

That is the picture we get of the forerunner of our 
Lord. And how regal, how divine, is the self-dedication 
of Jesus to sacrificial service! The Messiah-test in the 
wilderness is a necessary prelude for the commencement 
of His Messianic activity. How eagerly the Galilean 
fishermen responded to the call, “ Follow Me and I will 
make you fishers of men!” And Peter and Andrew 
“ straightway left their nets and followed Him.” A simi- 
lar invitation is just as speedily accepted by James and 
John, the sons of Zebedee. “ And they immediately left 
the ship and their father, and followed Him.” To Levi- 
Matthew, a tax-gatherer, He says, “ Follow Me; and he 
left all, rose up, and followed Him.” When a man leaves 
a profitable business to engage in a religious enterprise 
something must be said for the compelling power of the 
call of Christ. It is by virtue of that power than men are 
prevailed upon to join the ranks of His immediate follow- 
ers. The work grows to alarming proportions—alarming, 


INTRODUCTION 29 


at least, to the zealous defenders of the old faith. Among 
these is a former student of the celebrated Gamaliel. Saul 
of Tarsus is headed for Damascus, is seized by an irresis- 
tible power and humbly asks, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have 
me to do?” He instantly obeys the call to apostolic ser- 
vice, casting in his lot with a small, despised sect at the 
risk of his life. Why resist? The risen, glorified, all- 
powerful Christ had spoken and Saul must adjust himself, 
without delay, to the new situation. , 

However, temperamentally and otherwise, men are so | 
constituted as to react, with a considerable degree of va- 
riety, to the call of service. Temperamentally one man 
may be active ; another, passive. ‘The one will be quicker | 
to respond to the call than the other. And yet both may 
be equally vigorous in carrying out their mission, once 
they have accepted the responsibility of definite and ag- 
gressive service. Moses, for example, shrinks from the 
immediate assumption of a great prophetic task. The 
adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter has lost his fiery tem- 
per amid the mellowing scenes of pastoral life, far re- 
moved from the outcries of his enslaved brethren. He is 
no longer the proud and daring prince of the royal house- 
hold. He says, “ Who am I that I should go unto Pha- 
raoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt? ” 
And the answer comes, “ Surely I will be with thee.” But 
the diffident man replies, ‘ They will not believe me, nor 
hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah hath 
not appeared unto thee.” The ability to work signs and | 
wonders is conferred upon him. Still he hesitates. T'o 
his mind lack of eloquence is a disqualification for service. 
“O my Lord,” he says, “ I am not a man of words, neither 
heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, 
but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” And God 
replies, “ Who hath made man’s mouth? Have not I, the 
Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth 


30 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


and teach thee what thou shalt say.’’ But he begs to be 
excused, suggesting at the same time that another spokes- 
man ought to be selected for the task. “ And the anger 
of Jehovah was kindled against Moses and He said, Is not 
Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak 
well. He shall be thy spokesman unto the people.” 

Having carried his objections almost to the point of 
rebellion, Moses, humbly bowing to the sovereign will of 
God, now undertakes his epoch-making mission. Similar 
reluctance is met with in the case of Jeremiah. The word 
of God comes to him with all the force of a personal call, 
and the inexperienced youth naturally shrinks back for a 
moment, forgetting that manhood’s responsibilities have 
arrived. “ Ah, Lord God,” he says, “I know not how to 
speak; I am too young.’ He is endowed with a message 
and being assured of the sustaining power of the divine 
presence, he goes forth to his ministry with the word of 
God upon his lips and the Lord by his side. God’s will 
must be done. His word of command was like a burning 
fire in his heart. ‘I tried to withstand it, but could not. 
Thou didst beguile me, O Jehovah, and beguiled I let 
myself be; Thou wast stronger than I and hast pre- 
vailed.” He accepts his mission under protest. He had 
tried hard not to heed the call, but it was of no use. His 
divine Antagonist was too powerful for him. The strug- 
gle is too unequal. He will bow to the inevitable. God’s 
constraining hand had been laid upon him and the pro- 
testing prophet yields. Ezekiel, too, describes how the 
strong hand of God had forced him into the prophetic 
office (2:9; 3:14, 22). He is overwhelmed with the 
seriousness of the call which he had received, but he 
acknowledges the sovereign sway of the Almighty by 
serving Him. 

Jonah has no such compelling sense of the divine sover- 
eignty. He evades the call by headlong flight. “ The word 


INTRODUCTION 31 


of Jehovah came unto Jonah,” and he fled. There is no 
argument, no debate. He offers no excuse, expresses no 
doubt ; he simply rises up and goes his own way. A mir- 
acle is needed to break his stubborn will. Even then he re- 
sponds most unwillingly. His sense of stewardship is very 
limited. He finally goes to Nineveh, not to preach repen- 
tance or to bless, but to make a cold, oral announcement of 
impending doom, and then sit down in a nice shady spot to 
see the end of the wicked city. The theoretical acknowl- 
edgment of God’s universal sovereignty is one thing; the 
possession of a missionary dynamic, quite another. All 
such “ intellectuals’ must sit down under a juniper-tree 
and learn the lesson which God taught Jonah. Or, better 
still, let all such sit at the feet of the first great Missionary 
—Jesus Christ—and the missionary impulse will not be 
lacking. Then the call to consecrated service will not go 
forth unheard. Many will be found, who will respond to 
it, some with much trepidation of heart and secret misgiv- 
ings, others with the ready obedience of a dynamic, mov- 
ing faith in the Son of God. Under normal conditions, a 
deep experience of religion spells service to humanity, both 
to the man of action as well as to the passive and deliber- 
ating disciple. A great experience is a trumpet-call to 
active service. 


I 
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 
GENEsis 12: 1-5 


N our discussion of the call to prophetic service, we 
naturally begin with the call of Abraham. His early 
history is associated with Ur of the Chaldees along 

the banks of the Euphrates in southern Babylonia and 
with Harran in northern Mesopotamia. ‘These two cities 
were prominent centres of moon-worship. Trade rela- 
tions with these centres of population would tend to 
spread the worship of the moon-god Sin, who is simply 
one of many gods. 

Abraham did not get his religion from the moon- 
worshippers of Babylonia, nor did the followers of Anu, 
Bel, Ea, Marduk, Shamash, Ishtar and a host of lesser 
deities have any contribution to make to his conception of 
God. The religion of the patriarch is really a protest 
against idolatry. There is not a single trace in Genesis 
12-25 of a visible representation of Jehovah. As in 
the time of Abraham, so later in the decalogue, idolatry 
was definitely excluded from the Hebrew religion. Image- 
worship is not elevating but degrading. In the case of the 
one true God, it would only drag Him down to the low 
level of the Babylonian gods who fill their distorted bodies 
with strong drink and goodly quantities of the choicest 
food. This excessive eating and drinking probably re- 
flects the gluttonous habits of the upper stratum of Baby- 
lonian society. Morally these gods do not differ very 
much from their worshippers. The goddess Ishtar, we 


32 


THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 33 


are told, had many paramours. What a low estimate of 
deity! The God of Abraham, on the other hand, is a 
spiritual and moral Being. He is not like an oriental 
judge who can be bribed with a gift. He moves in the 
realm of the spiritually uplifting and not on the low plane 
of the physical or of earthly desires. 

The call of Abraham is an epoch-making event in the 
history of religion. It may not be customary to speak of 
him as a prophet, and yet the fact is not to be overlooked 
that he, too, is reckoned among the prophets. In Genesis 
20:7, Abraham is actually called a prophet who inter- 
cedes for a Canaanite by the name of Abimelech. And 
you will remember how his prayers of intercession in 
behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah almost saved the cities of 
the plain from impending disaster. Although not a 
prophet or a preacher in the technical sense, Abraham, as 
a recipient of divine revelation, is nevertheless a prophet. 
Through him the blessings of true religion are to be medi- 
ated to the world. This is true prophecy. There is 
nothing like it in the religion of Babylonia. Soothsaying 
and magical incantation formulas are not prophecy. 
Babylonia cannot boast of a single prophet. 

The first prophet of Old Testament religion was not the 
product of his environment. In the idolatrous homeland 
of the patriarch there was an atmosphere of excessive 
religiousness, of ceremonial forms and sacrificial rites, 
coupled not infrequently, in the name of religion, with 
scenes of the wildest debauchery and the most debasing 
kind of prostitution. This religiousness in the worship of 
the principle of natural fertility, so common in all nature- 
religions, tended to a multiplicity of gods and goddesses ; 
every little locality almost had its own god or goddess with 
its own sacred rites. In addition to these gods of fertility, 
having their supposed habitat in some town, village or 
hamlet, there were the stellar deities, such as the sun, 


34 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


moon and the stars, each presiding over some aspect of 
human life. There were gods many and cults many. 

A careful study of Babylonian literature shows that, 
while there are many commendable features connected 
with the religion of the Tigris-Euphrates valley, it is abso- 
lutely certain that neither Abraham nor his descendants 
could have established the religion of the only true God 
in such an atmosphere. The patriarch was surrounded by 
idolatrous influences. His immediate ancestors, including 
Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, are said to 
have “ worshipped other gods” (Josh. 24:2). Laban, 
the son of Nahor (Gen. 29:5) was an idolater. In Gene- 
sis 31:30 he accuses Jacob of having “ stolen my gods.” 
Not knowing that ‘ Rachel had stolen them,” Jacob said 
to his father-in-law, “ With whomsoever thou findest thy 
gods, let him not live” (Gen. 31:32). To steal a man’s 
gods was a serious matter. Laban was much disturbed 
over the loss of his beloved idols or house-gods. But his 
attachment to them was no greater than that of his 
daughter who could not make up her mind to leave home 
without the teraphim. It is only too obvious that as a 
representative of the true God, Jacob at this time still 
had considerable missionary work to do among the mem- 
bers of his own household before he could become a bless- 
ing to the nations of the earth. The best thing that Jacob 
and his family can do from a religious point of view is to 
leave Babylonia for the land of promise. The necessity 
of such a separation was even more imperative in the time 
of Abraham. Consequently there came to the latter, we 
know not how exactly, the call of God to detach himself 
from his idolatrous surroundings and to go into a land 
which the Lord would show him. “And Jehovah said 
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I 
will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, 


THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 35 


and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou 
shalt be a blessing: in thee shall all nations of the earth 
be blessed” (Gen. 12:1, 2, 3b). 

Think of the sacrifices Abraham is called upon to make. 
He is asked to leave his country, his kindred, and his 
father’s house and to go forth into an unknown land. 
Most certainly this is no small demand to make of a man, , 
especially in patriarchal times, when the security of a man 
and his family depended, in case of attack from without, 
upon the protection of the kindred tribe to which such a 
family belonged. And besides, if Canaan was to be the 
destination of the patriarch, what was to be gained from 
a material standpoint by the abandonment of the Tigris- 
Euphrates valley with its superior civilization, and with 
its network of irrigating canals and rivulets which carried 
fertility to the whole landscape? If Palestine was a land 
of brooks and fertile valleys, it also had, particularly in 
what later became the land of Judah, its inhospitable 
mountain regions, offering but a sparse vegetation for the 
household and flocks of the migrating patriarch. But 
what is material gain to a man who has heard the voice 
of the Almighty calling him to a service which even angels 
cannot perform? ‘To him, the maintenance of the worship 
of the true God, endangered so greatly by the nature- 
worship of Mesopotamia, was the supreme consideration. 
It was the triumph of the spiritual over the material; the 
acknowledgment that in God there is something far 
greater than can be found in nature, for the One who has 
spoken to him is nature’s God. 

Others may worship the constellations and bow down to 
stocks and stones, if they like; others may be attracted by 
the material splendours of Babylonia’s superior civiliza- 
tion, but as for him and his house, they shall serve the 
living God! All things else are of secondary concern. 
Once assured that God is calling him, Abraham responds 


36 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


without wavering. Forthwith he severs, as commanded, 
all ties of country, of kindred, and of home. To leave 
one’s native land at the age of seventy-five, must have 
been no small trial to Abraham. At his age, the love of 
adventure is no longer an incentive to such an under- 
taking. But, like the heroic missionary of apostolic and 
modern times, he is not disobedient to the voice, summon- 
ing him to sever the ties of all past associations, including 
the ties of kindred and the scenes of his childhood. He 
made the sacrifice demanded of him because he loved God 
better than his native soil and his own kinsmen. His 
heroic example reminds one of the missionary pioneers 
of the last century, some of whom went to the foreign 
field at an advanced age in response to the Macedonian 
call. Men of faith always respond to the call of duty. 
Why tarry in idol-ridden Babylonia or in comfort-seeking 
America when the command is to go forward and occupy 
the land of promise? 

Abraham’s obedience to the command of God was an 
act of heroic faith. Obedience under such conditions 
argues more than average faith. It marks Abraham as 
the hero of faith. It is a demonstration of his unflinching 
faith in the Almighty. The divine command was really a 
challenge to his faith in Jehovah. He met the challenge 
then, as later at Moriah (Gen. 22), with that unwavering 
obedience which is so characteristic of this hero of faith. 
To him faith without its natural fruit—obedience—was 
unthinkable. It was his confidence in the character of 
God, in His providence and loving care, in His integrity, 
power and wisdom that led him to leave country, home 
and kindred and to set out on a long and perilous journey, 
not knowing whither he went. He took God at His word 
and accepted His promises at their full face value. Why 
speak of sacrifices in the face of such glorious promises! 
The promises which are attached to the divine command 


THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 37 


in the passage under consideration far outnumber the sac- 
rifices which the patriarch is called upon to make. In the 
first verse of the twelfth chapter of Genesis he is com- 
manded to leave the land of his birth and early associ- 
ations for the purpose of settling in a land which is to 
furnish the historical background of the divine plan of 
salvation. Verses two and three contain the promises of 
a numerous posterity and of a great salvation for all man- 
kind. Abraham and his descendants are to be greatly 
blessed of God in order that they may be the means of 
blessing others: all nations are included in God’s covenant 
of grace. And verse four speaks of the patriarch’s willing 
submission to God’s command. Failure to comply with 
this command would have rendered the promise of no 
effect. The land where God’s promises were to be fulfilled 
was hundreds of miles distant from the place of his birth. 
To avail himself of the promise he must first of all seek 
the land of promise. Some people’s faith delights in lay- 
ing hold of God’s promises but falls short in ready obedi- 
ence to God’s precepts or commands. Not so with the 
father of the faithful. In the eleventh chapter of He- 
brews we read, “ By faith Abraham, when he was called 
to go out into a place which he should afterwards receive 
as an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing 
whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of 
promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with 
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise ; 
for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God ” (verses 8-10). 

At some time in our lives a similar call comes to each 
one of us. Whether the voice of God, which summoned 
Abraham, assumed an audible form or came to him 
through an awakened conscience, in either case, the patri- 
arch recognized it as divine. No less divine is the gospel- 
call, whether conveyed to men in a permanent written 


38 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


form or as the spoken word of God’s servant. The uni- 
form call of Christ to all His followers is, ‘ Follow Me, 
and I will make you fishers of men. And every one that 
forsaketh houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother 
or wife or children or lands for My name’s sake, shall 
receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” 

How easily the divine call, although heard by Abraham, 
might have been lost, as in the case of so many young men 
of today, through indecision and moral cowardice. Not 
long ago a brilliant high school graduate of prepossessing 
appearance expressed his regrets that his mother would 
not consent to his leaving home and attending college for 
the purpose of preparing himself for the study of the- 
ology. His mother’s attitude is the result of an instinctive 
desire to keep the young man under the parental roof as 
long as possible. What a pity that feminine timidity and 
a lack of self-surrender and courageous faith in the sus- 
taining power of grace, should deprive “ the land of prom- 
ise”? of another prophet! There is every indication that 
the youth in question had heard the call of his Lord, sum- 
moning him to the work of the ministry. And yet, for the 
present at least, the call remains unanswered. This is by 
no means an isolated case. Only about fifty per cent. of 
the ministerial candidates in a certain church college, for 
instance, have the consent of both parents. Strange to 
say, many of these young men have the consent of their 
fathers, but not of their mothers, to study for the minis- 
try. Some of the students in one of the theological semi- 
naries have experienced a similar antagonism, mothers in 
some instances antagonizing for years the lofty idealism 
of their sons. Such mothers fail to realize that natural 
affection, in such a case, must give way to One, who said, 
“He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not 
worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter more 
than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). Hence- 


THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 39 


forth let all parents learn to further, and not to hinder, 
their children in the work of ministering unto others, ever 
mindful of the right of the Lord and Giver of life to 
summon us to sever the most sacred of natural ties, to 
forsake friends and companions, and to go apart with God 
in preparation for the work of the ministry. 

There is no substitute for obedience to the will of God. 
This lesson was brought home to King Saul in the famil- 
iar words, ‘‘ Obedience is better than sacrifice.” The 
obedience of a self-surrendering faith is better than burnt 
offerings and whole burnt offerings. Temporal gifts may 
have their value in religion. But they cannot be compared 
with the offering of one’s entire personality on the altar 
of loving service. Gifts are no substitute for personal 
service. Blessed is the man who, like Abraham of old, 
obeys God’s voice calling him, whether by precept or 
promise, into His service, for that alone is true and saving 
faith. The work begun by Abraham must be continued 
by his descendants. Israel’s election is for world-service 
of the highest type. The same responsibility devolves 
upon every spiritual son of the patriarch. We, too, are 
called upon to mediate the blessings of true religion to an 
idolatrous generation. People still cling to their “ gods” 
with the utmost tenacity. But the blind determination of 
a misguided imagination must be eclipsed by the dauntless 
courage of a world-conquering faith in the God of 
Abraham. Every member of the spiritual priesthood is 
to be a light-bearer in a dark and sinful world, witnessing 
in one way or another to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. 
No one is exempt from service, and no real Christian 
wants to be exempt. Let us thank God for those who, out 
of a deep sense of consecration and whole-souled devotion 
to the cause of Christ, have gone forth from the parental 
home to witness for Him in far and distant lands. We 
are no less grateful for the home missionary and for the 


40 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


leaders in our congregations and their faithful people, 
who are doing everything in their power to strengthen the 
base of operations in the homeland. Ultimately the vic- 
tory will be ours. Thanks be unto God who giveth us the 
victory through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

Briefly stated, the call of Abraham is an event of the 
first importance in Hebrew religion. How God called the 
patriarch is not explained. We are told that God “spoke 
to Abram.” The reference here is probably to a the- 
ophany. But the dream, or “ vision of the night,” is also 
a possible factor. Whatever it was, we may rest assured 
that the call was not the product of imagination or that it 
proceeded from the speculations of a contemplative mind. 
The worship of the one true God did not grow out of the 
conviction that there must be something higher and better 
in religion than the man-made gods of Babylonia. Jeho- 
vah is not the mental abstraction of a man seeking a unify- 
ing principle in religion. Abraham’s pilgrimage to the 
land of promise is more than the reaction of a religious 
mind against the nature-worship of idolatrous Mesopo- 
tamia. His heroic faith in the living God is not begotten 
of philosophic speculation. Religion is not philosophy. 
It is an experience of spiritual realities. God, in some 
way, made Himself known to Abraham, spoke to him and 
sent him on his mission. The God of Abraham is still a 
living reality in the religious consciousness of God’s peo- 
ple. He has become more real to us since the days of 
Jesus, who made known to us the very heart of God. He 
dwells in our hearts, speaks to our conscience and sends 
us on our spiritual pilgrimage. 


II 
THE CALL OF MOSES 


Exopus 3-4 


OSES, too, is a prophet ; indeed, the first genuine 
M prophet of his people. Speaking of the emanci- 
pator of enslaved Israel, Hosea says, “By a 
prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a 
prophet was Israel preserved ” (12:13). During the life- 
time of Moses the spirit of prophecy was bestowed upon a 
select number of the elders of Israel. Numbers 11:25 
relates that God took of the spirit that was upon Moses, 
and gave it unto the seventy elders, “ And it came to pass 
that they began to prophesy.” ‘This prophetic activity of 
Moses shall not suffer for want of a more or less regular 
succession of men, divinely inspired of God, who as fit 
instruments of divine revelation, shall declare God’s pur- 
poses concerning Israel. The culminating point of He- 
brew prophecy is reached, of course, in the Prophet of 
Nazareth. In Deut. 18:18 we read, “I will raise them up 
a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I 
will put My words into his mouth; and he shall speak unto 
them all that I shall command him.” 

In keeping with the promise to Abraham, God was edu- 
cating the descendants of the patriarch to become the 
channel of divine revelation, through which He would 
ultimately reveal Himself to the nations of the earth; and 
in order that oppressed Israel might not prove untrue to 
its calling, He raised up a man with peculiar qualifications 
for the tremendous task to which he was called. Realizing 


41 


A2 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the difficulties of the task set before him, Moses naturally 
shrank from a work, involving the consolidation of the 
disjected members of the tribes of Israel into a compact 
nation with a great national and religious purpose. But, 
be it said to his lasting praise, he came forth at last, under 
the compulsion of the divine call, as the deliverer of op- 
pressed Israel. His response to the call, as we learn from 
the E\pistle to the Hebrews, was nothing short of a venture 
of faith in the living God, “ for he endured as seeing Him 
who is invisible” (11:27). 

A brief study of the call of Moses will be of special in- 
terest to every prospective candidate for the ministry. It 
brings us into the sanctuary of God’s presence, and shows 
us how the invisible, yet ever-present God still comes near 
to choose servants for His work. 

In the account of the call of Moses (Ex. 3 and 4), a 
Hebrew shepherd, keeping the flocks of Jethro, his father- 
in-law, in the vicinity of Horeb, reverently turns aside for 
a moment to see and investigate a most unusual natural 
phenomenon. But what is it that he sees? A thorny 
acacia bush enveloped in flames, but, strange to say, the 
bush remains unconsumed. But presently the burning 
bush is converted into a sanctuary, for lo and behold, he 
hears himself addressed by name like Samuel (I Sam. 
3:10), and St. Paul (Acts 9:4), the voice calling out, 
“Moses, Moses!” This is the personal call with which 
the prophet’s commission begins, and to which he returns 
a ready answer, saying, “ Here am I.” 

A vision of the Eternal is still vouchsafed to every be- 
lieving heart. To the eye of faith every common bush is 
aglow with God, Christian experience being the avenue of 
approach to the very threshold of His sacred presence. 
Where is the man with but a spark of religion in his soul, 
who has not at one time or another been thrilled by the 
sudden outshining of spiritual light and power? Is it pos- 


THE CALL OF MOSES , 43 


sible, in the light of almost twenty centuries of Christian 
experience, not to speak of an equal number of years of 
Old Testament history, for any young man to say that 
God has never spoken to his inmost soul? Any so-called 
Christian young man, who makes such a preposterous 
claim, has never taken the trouble to turn aside and ex- 
amine the glorious facts of our most holy religion. A 
willing disposition on his part reverently to turn aside, and 
to draw near, as Moses drew near, so that God may speak 
to him, will lead to a vision of Him, who is nearer to us 
than hands and feet. A vision of the Almighty is always 
dependent upon the measure of our receptivity, and not 
upon any unwillingness on God’s part to reveal Himself 
and to make known His will. God is an ever-present fact 
in human experience. But alas! only few are prepared to 
meet the conditions leading to such an experience; and 
hence, comparatively speaking, there is a lack of vision, 
which in reality is nothing more than a symptom of re- 
ligious and spiritual declension in the individual soul. Oh 
for greater readiness to hear the voice of God speaking to 
us in divers ways! Elijah, on Mount Horeb, for example, 
hears nothing but the “still small voice,” alluded to in 
I Kings 19. To some the call may come through the 
deeper meaning of bereavement. To others, God may 
speak by inspiring their hearts and minds with His re- 
vealed truth. Or He may reveal and manifest Himself to 
a man’s conscience, awakened to a compelling sense of his 
duty to God and man. 

But the call of the prophet is not as yet complete. The 
mere mention of his name is only the beginning of his 
divine commission. In his approach to the burning bush, 
he is cautioned not to draw too near without observing the 
usual religious custom of removing his sandals upon en- 
tering a sanctuary, as a symbol of becoming reverence and 
religious awe. Is there not in this for us the lesson that in 


A, THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the presence of a holy God we must lay aside some things? 
In other words, we must divest ourselves of all irrever- 
ence, idle curiosity, self-reliance, and pride. Humility 
before God is the path to the highest preferment, and rev- 
erence, to the closest intimacy. How often this truth is 
forgotten by those ministering in holy things. One indi- 
cation of this is the irreverent curiosity of certain types of 
theological science. Science, to be sure, has resulted in 
many temporal blessings, but along with these we have 
reaped a harvest of religious irreverence. The old foun- 
dations, they tell us, have given way to a new interpreta- 
tion of life; nothing is sure, nothing is certain; the 
sanctions of religion depend upon a human source. 

This blatant type of so-called scholarship, with all its 
irreverence, has in some cases found its way into the 
sanctuary, heedless of the solemn admonition, “ Put off 
thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou 
standest is holy ground.” These moderns rush in, so to 
speak, where angels fear to tread, unmindful of the fact 
that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. Along 
with all this came the levelling process of an exaggerated 
individualism; the levelling influence of democracy has 
also done its part in bringing about this change in the atti- 
tude toward religion. The majority of our youth have no 
idea how much nearer God seemed to the fathers than to 
their children; how much more compelling seemed the 
services of religion and with what reverence our fore- 
fathers listened to the voice of the ministry. But in spite 
of all these changes the reverent Biblical scholar of today 
realizes that he is dealing with holy things. Happily the 
Christian ministry is not altogether lacking in reverent 
preachers. They still stand on holy ground, dispensing 
the means of grace to reverent worshippers. Men still 
feel that when their God-fearing pastor prays, he is pros- 
trating himself before a holy God. 


THE CALL OF MOSES AS 


Meanwhile God announces Himself to His reverent 
worshipper at the mount of God, saying, “I am the God 
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I 
have surely seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, and 
I am come down to deliver them.” Ultimately, of course, 
it is Israel’s God that delivers His people, but He operates 
largely by human means. Throughout the whole scheme 
of divine economy, God, although here and there He may 
speak directly to an individual chosen of Him for a defi- 
nite work, generally speaks to man through human agency. 
This is only another way of saying that “we are co- 
labourers together with God ” in the evangelization of the 
world. Accordingly, the God of the patriarchs, in remem- 
brance of His covenant with Abraham and his descend- 
ants, designates Moses to deliver the Israelites from 
Egyptian oppression. The man selected for this mighty 
task was a former courtier of Levitic extraction, whose 
education had been supplemented by the isolation of his 
shepherd-life in the solitudes of Midian, thus affording 
ample time for the mellowing and maturing process of 
meditation and communion with God. Thus equipped, 
God not only calls him, but also at the same time commis- 
sions him, saying, “ Come now therefore, and I will send 
thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my peo- 
ple out of Egypt.” Religion, in the case of Moses, is not 
to begin and end in the mere contemplation of a miracu- 
~ lous event. The flaming bush has a message, bidding him 
to serve the Lord whom he is worshipping. He is to be a 
missionary to the clans of Goshen. As God’s messenger 
and spokesman he is to plead the cause of his people 
before Pharaoh, and to lead the liberated slaves into a 
land flowing with milk and honey. 

In like manner the contemplation of our personal salva- 
tion as a work of divine grace may thrill our hearts with 
religious ecstasy and boundless joy. But if our religion is 


46 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


to be worth anything, it must be a religion in action, for 
we are saved to serve. If our faith be genuine, the fruits 
of faith will not be lacking. Does it mean nothing to us 
that untold millions of precious souls are groaning under 
the grinding exactions of sin? Is the search of heathen 
multitudes, groaning in the dark for thousands of years 
for some ray of light that might lead them to God, less 
real to us than the enslavement of Israel in Egypt for a 
period of four hundred years? Why do these awful facts 
stare us in the face today? ‘The reason is not far to seek. 
The gospel-call for deliverers went forth no less than nine- 
teen hundred years ago, but only a comparatively small 
number of God-fearing men and women has responded to 
the call of service at home and abroad. I fail to under- 
stand how any qualified young man with a conscience can 
turn his back upon the Macedonian calls of our own time. 
Somewhere I read that he is thinking of the flesh-pots of 
Egypt. Shame on him! Or is he saying, to hide his low 
earth-born ideals, or lack of ideals, that he can do just as 
much good as a consecrated business man in the land of 
Midian? What a subterfuge! For who has a right to 
substitute his own personal wishes for that higher call to 
service which comes from the Almighty? 

Is Moses equal to the task? Of course not, for who is 
sufficient unto these things? For one thing, Moses is only 
a man, and a poor shepherd at that, with all the buoyancy 
of his youth entirely gone by virtue of his excruciating 
experiences in Egypt. Not a vestige of his former im- 
petuosity remains. Several decades before, the poor man 
did not know that he could not save his people by methods 
of his own choosing. How fitting, therefore, that he 
should be separated for a time from the military atmos- 
phere of an Egyptian palace, and trained by the beneficent 
influences of exilic isolation for the high duties which lay 
before him. But even so; no one is better able than he 


THE CALL OF MOSES AT 


fully to appreciate what it means to appear before mighty 
Pharaoh with such a request. Not even the prince of the 
royal household would dare to approach the throne of the 
Egyptian monarch with a request threatening the subver- 
sion of the whole economic system of the most powerful 
nation on earth! “And who am I,” he says, “that I 
should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring the 
Israelites out of Egypt?” 

Let not those who halt between two opinions, and stum- 
ble over the self-invented difficulties of most ordinary 
lives think hardly of the faltering faith of Moses in the 
face of a task before which any ordinary man would quail 
and tremble. Deeply conscious of his own weakness, he 
pleads his unfitness for such a mission. God, who does 
not repudiate his self-depreciation, hereupon assures him 
of His presence and help, saying, “‘ Certainly I will be with 
thee.” Moses versus Pharaoh would be a hopeless cause, 
but God and Moses versus Pharaoh is quite another thing. 
How reassuring, therefore, is the promise, “ Certainly I 
will be with thee.” I will be to thee a never-failing source 
of surpassing strength and power. Thus equipped, Moses 
did not have to calculate the difference between his weak- 
ness and the prowess of a world empire. Success in any 
religious enterprise is not conditioned by the mere acci- 
dent of birth, of social position, and of earthly rank, “ but 
by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” Let us not forget that 
while mere externals may tend to the furtherance of re- 
ligion among certain classes, they are by no means indis- 
pensable to ministerial success. No one will deny that 
some of the best ministers of the gospel have come from 
the most humble walks of life. Men of faith from the 
lower ranks of society may do as much as the greatest 
dignitary of the realm, to subdue kingdoms, and put to 
“flight the armies of the aliens.” Everything depends 
upon the promise, “I will be with thee.” Jehovah incar- 


48 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


nate claims the right to bestow upon us the same encour- 
agement, when He says, “ Lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world.” 

Moses, however, anticipating a real difficulty, which 
might cause him considerable embarrassment upon his ar- 
rival in Egypt, continues, ‘“ When I come unto the children 
of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your 
fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto 
me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them?” In 
other words, If I should.say to the Israelites, The God of 
your fathers hath sent me unto you, they will say, That is 
a tremendous claim to make, prove your commission, show 
us your credentials. Inasmuch as the God of the fathers 
has revealed Himself in times past under various names, 
such as El, El-Shaddai (God Almighty), El-Elyon (God 
Most High), Yahweh (the Jehovah of our English Bible), 
and Elohim, under which of these names has God revealed 
Himself to you? Could it be possible that the Hebrew 
slaves, in their dreary bondage, had become intellectually 
and morally dwarfed to such an extent that, under the in- 
fluence of their idolatrous surroundings, they had lost 
much of their ancestral faith, and had in many instances 
begun to worship the nature-deities of Egypt? In this 
way they would learn to know the names of many of the 
Egyptian gods, for each deity had its own name. Had the 
knowledge of the true God, in the course of four hundred 
years of servitude, begun to fade from the memory of a 
majority of the people, so that Moses felt that to indicate 
in a general way their ancestral God would not sufficiently 
distinguish Him from the idols of Egypt, whose worship 
had infected their ranks? 

However that may be, the Lord is prompt in meeting 
this new difficulty of Moses by revealing to him the name 
of Yahweh, or Jehovah, by which He desires to be known 
henceforth by His people. This name of God, although 


THE CALL OF MOSES 49 


known to the patriarchs, receives a fuller meaning. His 
personal name is explained by the promise, “I will be with 
thee.” To understand what is implied in the name itself, 
we must remember that a new turning-point has been 
reached in the history of redemption. This is rendered 
possible by the fact that the God of the fathers will reveal 
Himself to the enslaved descendants of the patriarchs by a 
series of mighty acts, culminating in the liberation of those 
in bondage. If God will be with Moses in the work to 
which he has been called, He will likewise be with His 
people to help them, and to lead them out of Egypt witha 
strong and outstretched arm. Thus it will be seen that the 
name “ Yahweh” has a practical, rather than a meta- 
physical, meaning. It contains the practical and faith- 
inspiring truth that the work of liberation, inaugurated by 
the prophet, would be duly accomplished, because it had 
the support of Israel’s God. 

The revelation of God’s name is followed by a very 
practical suggestion regarding the method of procedure in 
such a case. The prophet is bidden to communicate, upon 
his arrival in Egypt, with the elders, the regularly consti- 
tuted authorities of his people, for it is necessary that he 
should acquaint them with his plans and to present to 
them, as it were, his credentials. Their co-operation would 
assure a good beginning for his work. The course of sub- 
sequent events abundantly demonstrated the wisdom of 
the admonition given to Moses, as is seen from the un- 
qualified enthusiasm with which the elders supported the 
enterprise. It is interesting to note in this connection that 
Moses is not a.law unto himself. There is no divine sanc- 
tion for the blundering zeal and the utter disregard of all 
authority, whether ecclesiastical or otherwise, on the part 
of certain fanatics claiming direct illumination from the 
Holy Spirit, and a special commission to preach the gospel. 
Since when, let me ask, has the Holy Spirit ceased to 


50 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


/ 
function through the Church? The man with a genuine 
call is not unwilling to submit his credentials for the ap- 
proval of the Church. Was ever a commission more direct 
than that of Moses? And yet he is willing to prove to the 
representatives of the people that he is no self-constituted 
prophet. 

But before doing this, Moses anticipates another diff- 
culty. After four hundred years of slavery, the tidings of 
their sudden emancipation might be too much for their 
weakened faith. They had already suffered so many dis- 
appointments that they would not be likely to credit the 
probability of their deliverance from the cruellest system 
of oppression ever devised by the wicked ingenuity of 
man. If they showed little inclination to believe in such a 
possibility forty years ago, they would evince the same 
scepticism now. No, “they will not believe me, nor 
hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah hath 
not appeared unto thee.” In the present state of their faith, 
a message, including the revelation of the divine nature, 
unaccompanied by signs and wonders, would fail of a 
hearing. As a prop to the faith of his people, as well as 
to strengthen his own, Moses is empowered to work signs 
and wonders in attestation of his divine commission. 

What follows is an indication of the importance of elo- 
quence among the ancients. Moses suddenly remembers 
his lack of persuasive powers, and he hesitates. The man 
who wields a wonder-working rod in the sight of the chil- 
dren of Israel and before Pharaoh must be capable of 
moving the hearts of those assembled to hear’ him and, 
humanly speaking, the success or failure of his great and 
perilous task would largely depend upon his ability to 
move the heart of Pharaoh. He was diffident of his pow- 
ers as a speaker, and thought that he would be unable to 
persuade either Pharaoh or his own countrymen. Not 
experiencing any improvement in this regard since the 


THE CALL OF MOSES 51 


beginning of his interview with Jehovah, he says, “O my 
Lord, I am not a man of words, neither heretofore, nor 
since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow 
of speech, and of a slow tongue.” God meets his objec- 
tion by declaring that his want of eloquence will be sup- 
plied by divine Omnipotence. ‘“ Who hath made man’s 
mouth? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I 
will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt 
say.” What a sublime answer! That the Creator has an 
absolute right to the energies and gifts of the creature is 
an argument that is absolutely unanswerable. Moreover, 
cannot the Creator of all things touch with eloquence the 
lips which He has fashioned? But since real prophecy is 
not a question of mere words, God can send a great mes- 
sage by a man of slow speech. Moses is not to be a man 
of words, but of action. 

For, after all, real eloquence is not a matter of fluent 
utterance, but of ideas, thoughts and emotions based on a 
vision of things eternal and unseen; and last, but not least, 
of rock-bottom convictions formed in the crucible of actual 
experience. A man, thus endowed, although of slow 
speech, and even, like St. Paul, of contemptible speech 
(II Cor. 10:10), may accomplish, with God’s help, a work 
of titanic proportions. The words of such a man are like 
the blows of a mighty hammer that smiteth the rock in 
pieces. They are not made, but born out of a great ex- 
perience. Let no man who feels within him the minis- 
terial call be deterred by the thought that he is “slow of 
speech and of a slow tongue.” Slowness of speech is not 
an absolute disqualification for the ministry of reconcili- 
ation. All things being equal, God will “be with his 
mouth,” so that souls may be won for the kingdom. 

Now that the attention of Moses has been directed to 
this fact, one would suppose that he would ere long be on 
his way to the fulfilment of the divine call. But, no; his 


52 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


excessive diffidence and humility lead him to excuse him- 
self without assigning any definite reason why he should 
be excused other than to suggest the sending in his stead 
of a person better qualified for the work. Did he commit 
the sin of self-distrust because he was unable to see the 
wisdom of God’s choice? Was the deficiency of which he 
complained, caused by the natural shyness of a lonely 
shepherd living in the solitudes of Midian? The occupa- 
tion of a shepherd does not, as a rule, furnish the neces- 
sary presuppositions for facility of expression. If he ever 
did possess the gift of persuasive speech in the palmy days 
of Egypt, he has practically lost it by disuse. Moreover, 
one abortive attempt to rescue the Israelites is enough, not 
that he is a coward exactly; it takes more than an ordi- 
nary man to throw in his lot with a despised race, “ choos- 
ing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than 
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” 

But there is one thing that he cannot endure, and that ts, 
the jibes and jeers of the very men whom he wanted to 
rescue. Perhaps they were right; he is not the superman 
that he once thought he was. He cannot even command 
the respect of an audience, much less arouse his auditors 
to action by the gift of oratory. Had he possessed won- 
derful oratorical ability, and less muscular energy, on a 
certain occasion when his sense of justice was aroused, he 
might have succeeded better. He lacks self-confidence, 
and worse still, faith in God. He therefore prays to be 
left in obscurity. “ And the anger of Jehovah was kindled 
against Moses, and He said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy 
brother? I know that he can speak well.” Moses at last 
surrenders himself to the divine will, and is prepared, in 
conjunction with Aaron, to undertake his great mission. 
Called of God, the timorous listener obeys the voice speak- 
ing to him out of the burning bush, and yields himself 
without reserve to the service of God. 


THE CALL OF MOSES 53 


Before concluding this part of our study, we deem it 
our duty to remark that the call of Moses and its lessons 
cannot be ignored with impunity by the young man of 
today. These are the days when the Church of Christ is 
calling for more men to man her pulpits and to build up 
the waste places of Zion at home and abroad. My brother, 
are you in doubt as to what application you should make 
of the incidents and events recorded in the third and 
fourth chapters of the book of Exodus? Are you saying 
to yourself, The circumstances attending the call of Moses 
are quite remote from the experiences of my own life? I 
have never seen a bush anywhere flaming unburned, or 
heard a miraculous voice calling to me from its midst. 
The reason is, that you do not need it. The average young 
man in the Church of Jesus Christ is afflicted with the 
spirit of self-excusing; he cannot serve his Lord in the 
capacity of a prophet, he cannot enter the ministry, be- 
cause he has never been audibly and visibly called to that 
form of service, as if the Almighty were limited to the 
direct method of calling a man in a miraculous way to the 
work of the ministry. It is a most pitiful thing that a man 
should read of Moses being miraculously called to a defi- 
nite work, and forget that he himself is also a subject of 
divine grace. Has God no message for you, my friend? 
Ah, yes; He may speak to you in the twentieth century 
through the burning bush. Your burning bush is the 
Bible, containing a long series of historical revelations. 
You may visit it at any time and hear God’s voice speak- 
ing out of it. It will open up to you numerous avenues to 
the approach of present duty, for, as we have already seen, 
God reveals Himself to us by historical precedent as well 
as by the practical experiences of Christian truth. 

It is the duty of every man, to whom a special vocation 
presents itself, to ask himself the question, “ Dare I, at 
the peril of my soul’s salvation, refuse the call of the Al- 


54 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


mighty?” Is it for me to say whom the Lord in His in- 
finite wisdom should choose for His work? Did God 
make a mistake in calling Moses with all his splendid en- 
dowments? What Moses wanted was the gift of extraor- 
dinary powers for an extraordinary work. And yet, 
although he was not a man of many words and outstand- 
ing oratorical ability, the Lord could make use of him. 
Had Moses been willing to undertake the task assigned 
him, without a special spokesman in the person of his 
brother, who as a speaker ‘was above the average, he might 
have been led on in course of time, by patient practice and 
in reliance upon God’s help, to the eloquence of which 
he pronounced himself destitute. Time and opportunity, 
plus God’s grace, would be sure to bring about some im- 
provement in a prophet of slow tongue so that the work 
to which he is called may not suffer. Moses, failing to 
realize this, sinned, but repented of his procrastination by 
addressing himself to the immediate accomplishment of 
his noble task. Brother, can we, in the face of all the 
good that we can do by a ready compliance with the divine 
will, afford to sin against the Holy Ghost by refusing to 
work for Him when called? To him that knoweth to do 
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Many are not 
responding to the divine call. Their own consciences 
accuse them of sinful procrastination. Let me admonish 
you to fling to the winds all personal considerations, all 
likes and dislikes, for God is calling you. In the latter 
half of the fourth chapter of the book of Exodus, where 
mention is made of the return of Moses to Egypt, we have 
these words, “ And Moses went.” Go, and do likewise. 


III 
THE CALL OF SAMUEL 


I SAMUEL, 3 


is recorded the call of a boy prophet, vowed and con- 

secrated by a pious mother to the service of the Lord. 
Regarding her firstborn as a loan from the Lord and Giver 
of life, Hannah brought him in tender youth to the temple 
at Shiloh, where he might “ minister unto the Lord before 
Eli.” That Hannah had made no mistake in dedicating 
her son to the Lord is seen by his exemplary life and con- 
duct in the midst of a perfunctory priesthood and of an 
idolatrous people. In the eyes of the people he was subse- 
quently looked upon as a second Moses, who by his 
prayers and energetic deeds saved his people from political 
and religious disaster at the hands of the Philistines. 

The opening verses of our chapter point to the con- 
ditions of the time in which Samuel was called to this 
distinguished service. We hear of a scarcity of divine 
revelations, or public prophetic utterances. ‘“ The word of 
Jehovah was rare in those days; there was no open vis- 
ion.”. The official representatives of religion showed little 
aptitude for the higher interests of religion. Ei, in his old 
age, had lost his grip on Hophni and Phineas, who by their 
moral laxity and self-indulgence defiled their priestly 
robes. The sin of this good-natured old man was the sin 
of omission. His omission of parental restraint permitted 
the unchecked play of youthful insolence and excess. And 
so, when these self-willed, obstinate, and overbearing 


55 


[: the third chapter of the first book of Samuel there 


56 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


young men had grown to man’s estate, they failed to re- 
spond to the feeble remonstrances of old age. Dissolute 
pleasure-seekers were among their friends and compan- 
ions. ‘The effect of their evil example upon the masses was 
appalling, thus reminding us once more of the prophetic 
saying, “ Like priest, like people.” It was at this time that 
idolatry raised its head again, with all its attendant evils. 
What some of these evils were is quite apparent from 
the subsequent reformation of Israel’s religion, alluded to 
in I Sam. 7: 3-4, where the male and female deities of 
Canaanitish nature-worship are discarded: “ Samuel, how- 
ever, spoke to the whole house of Israel, saying, If ye do 
return unto Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away 
the foreign gods and the Ashtoroth from among you, and 
He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. 
Then the children of Israel did put away the Baalim and 
Ashtaroth, and served Jehovah alone.” The Philistines, 
ever alert for an opportunity to vanquish the hill tribes of 
Ephraim and of Judah, took advantage of Israel’s moral 
and spiritual decay. In the sequel, Israel suffered a crush- 
ing defeat, Hophni and Phineas were slain in battle, and 
Fli expired upon hearing the news of the disastrous out- 
come of the battle. The bitterness of such a defeat was 
aggravated by the certainty of virtual enslavement ; worse 
still, Philistine domination threatened the very existence of 
Israel’s national religion. In this terrible crisis of the na- 
tion Samuel, the boy prophet, addressed himself to the task 
of laying the foundations for the restoration of the lost 
fortunes of the house of Israel. He wrought upon the na- 
tional conscience until the people were ready to put away 
their idols and return to Jehovah. The result was that they 
achieved a most remarkable victory over their enemies. 
Samuel, through the exercise of his prophetic function, 
had done more than anyone else to break the yoke of 
Philistine oppression. Doubtless he is the most conspicu- 


THE CALL OF SAMUEL 57 


ous personage, after Moses, in the history of Israel. He 
towers far above his contemporaries, not even excluding 
King Saul, who trembled at the prophet’s rebuke. Great- 
ness, after all, is not a matter of so many cubits, but of in- 
ward piety and of strength of character. This, by the 
way, accounts for Saul’s rejection. In I Sam. 15: 22-23 
the prophet says, “ ‘To obey is better than sacrifice, and to 
hearken than the fat of rams. Because thou hast rejected 
the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from be- 
ing king.” It was for a similar reason that Hophni and 
Phineas went to their doom. God removed them from 
their office, not because they were wanting in originality 
of thought, or because they were behind the age, in which 
they lived. A theoretical “ dead-line”’ had nothing to do 
_ with their rejection whatsoever. On the contrary, they 
were in the prime of life, and in the possession of their 
full mental powers. They may even have been men of 
extraordinary oratorical ability. And yet, in spite of every 
natural endowment, they were displaced by a mere youth, 
because they were morally corrupt. Lack of character 
cannot be atoned for by a profusion of natural gifts. 
Rather be a consecrated, humble servant, ministering to 
the needs of Eli, than a brilliant, but irreverent son of the 
chief priest in the land. Rather be faithful in little things, 
like the humble “acolyte” in the temple, than unfaithful 
in the highest office of either Church or State. 

As regards Samuel’s preparation for his great work, the 
first lesson that forces itself upon our attention is, “ Let no 
one despise the day of little things.” Samuel, in early 
youth, while ministering unto the Lord before Eli, took 
kindly to the duties of his lowly station. The menial 
tasks of daily routine were performed with a sense of lov- 
ing devotion to the Lord of the sanctuary. At the break 
of day, for example, young Samuel had to open the doors 
of the temple enclosure, trim the lamps on the seven- 


58 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


branched candlestick, and fill them with pure olive oil. He 
then received his instructions for the day from the aged 
priest, whose dimness of sight and increasing infirmities 
rendered him largely dependent upon his faithful attend- 
ant. Part of his duties in the evening consisted in closing 
the doors of the sanctuary, and in lighting the lamps in the 
holy place. The years of his minority are all characterized 
by the same faithfulness in the performance of present 
duty. How many years elapsed before he heard the 
Lord’s voice in the temple.we cannot say. Josephus, in his 
Jewish Antiquities (V. 10, 4) states that this event took 
place when Samuel was twelve years of age. This age is 
quite within the limits of the meaning of the word na‘ar 
which, according to Hebrew usage, may denote not only a 
child, but also a youth or a young man. 

At all events, verse fifteen of our chapter shows that he 
was no longer a mere child, otherwise he would not have 
been entrusted with the keys of the sacred enclosure. 
With the heavy locks then in use, the strength of no mere 
child would have sufficed for such a task. But what we 
are more particularly interested in at present is to show 
that during all these years he came into daily contact with 
holy things. Through daily contact with Eli he doubtless 
learned many things concerning the religion of the fathers, 
which were stored in a receptive, pious heart. Under Fili’s 
eye and tutorship, he increased in stature and in favour 
with God and man (2:26; cf. Luke 2:52). Familiarity 
with holy things did not, as in the case of Hophni and 
Phineas, breed contempt; on the contrary, it resulted in 
ever-increasing devotion to God’s service. This is why 
Samuel was preferred above the sons of Eli, whose vision 
of things unseen, if they ever did possess it, was obscured 
by the sin of licentious self-indulgence. Faithful in little, 
he was entrusted with more, God calling him to a higher 
service. 


THE CALL OF SAMUEL 59 


By way of practical application, we would observe that 
a period of special preparation generally precedes the call 
to any form of service, really worth while. This is true of 
the Christian ministry, no less than in the world of indus- 
try. Such a period of preparation means faithfulness in 
little things; it means “line upon line, and precept upon 
precept.” 

Another point to be noted is that the call of God came to 
Samuel along the path of present duty. His daily work 
consisted of a series of lowly deeds and menial services 
rendered out of love to God. As an attendant at the sanc- 
tuary, he slept within the sacred precincts, probably in one 
of the adjoining chambers reserved for the personnel of 
the temple. One night, “ere the lamp of God went out in 
the temple,” he was awakened by a voice, calling to him, 
“ Samuel, Samuel; and he answered, Here am I. And he 
ran unto Eli and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. 
And he said, I called not; lie down again.” Again the 
voice sounded a second and a third time with the same 
result. Thus far no mention is made of a vision. Samuel 
heard a voice calling him by name. Apparently the voice 
was not audible, at least not to old Eli, whose faint slum- 
bers remained undisturbed. It spoke to Samuel’s inmost 
soul with ever-increasing impressiveness. When Eli’s 
youthful servant came the third time, persisting that he 
had been called, he finally perceived that it was a divine 
call, and he told him the meaning of the voice and the 
answer he must make in the event of his being called a 
fourth time. ‘And Jehovah came and stood, and called 
as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel an- 
swered, Speak, for Thy servant heareth.” ‘Three times the 
voice sounded and each time the boy mistook God’s voice 
for Eli’s. He had not yet learned to know Jehovah by 
direct and conscious revelation. But when spoken to a 
fourth time, he recognized in the voice which seemed to 


60 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


have drawn nearer, his Maker’s voice, and he responded 
with his characteristic humility and obedience to the voice 
of his master, whether human or divine, “ Speak, for Thy 
servant heareth.” 

As it is the duty of the servant to serve, he hears, not to 
argue, but to serve. The message which he receives is in 
substantial agreement with the one conveyed to Eli’s ears, 
some years before, by “aman of God.” As might be ex- 
pected, Samuel is in no haste to relate to his kind old mas- 
ter the painful message which he has received. There is 
no exulting here over. the downfall of a superior! It was 
only after Eli summoned him into his presence, and out 
of a sense of duty to God, that he made known to him the 
full contents of the message. By his call, the boy Samuel 
had become a man, ready to take up the stern duties of his 
prophetic office. The dawn of a new day was at hand. 
Prior to this, Samuel’s service was confined to attendance 
on the aged priest at Shiloh. But now, as an instrument 
attuned to the sound of God’s revealing voice, he is raised 
to a higher form of service. Formerly he had waited on 
man, now he waits on God ready to do His will. From 
now on, until the close of his life, he is the recognized 
channel of divine revelation, and the interpreter of God’s 
will to the people. 

The call of Samuel suggests, for our consideration, sev- 
eral lessons of value. We note, in passing, that he re- 
ceived his early education in the temple at Shiloh. Part of 
his early training consisted in daily attendance upon the 
services of God’s house. From what we know of his char- 
acter we are safe in assuming that he took a deep interest 
in all that pertained to the service, its ceremonies, sacri- 
fices, and sacred ordinances. Although he was unable at 
his age to comprehend the meaning of the sacred ritual, 
the sacrifices at the altar, expressing in a concrete form the 
prayerful aspirations of the soul, must have made a pro- 


THE CALL OF SAMUEL 61 


found impression upon his receptive mind. The temple 
ritual, which was no more than a meaningless form to 
Hophni and Phineas, exerted an elevating and purifying 
influence upon the boy. He soon learned to know by heart 
precious portions of Israel’s history, either recited by the 
priest from memory, or read from the sacred parchment, 
constituting, aside from the ark, Israel’s most priceless 
treasure. ‘To us, the practical lesson is, Let no one belittle 
the value of such religious exercises in the period of child- 
hood. The normal development of Samuel’s character 
indicates that the impressions of childhood are lasting. 
Who will attempt to measure the sacred influences ema- 
nating from the lispings of divine truth, whether in the 
form of precept or ritual? Let all parents, who are saying 
to themselves, My child is too young to go to Sunday- 
school, or church, remember the example of Hannah, who, 
after weaning her boy at the age of three or four, brought 
him to the temple at Shiloh. Woe to the parents who 
neglect to bring up their children in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord! The far-reaching effects of a 
Christian environment, whether in the home, in Sunday- 
school, or in the church, and in the catechetical class, can- 
not be over-estimated. Why are the theological seminaries 
of Christendom lacking Samuels today? Because the 
Hannah-type of mother is on the wane. If God spoke to 
Samuel, He will speak to every consecrated son of God’s 
spiritual Israel. 

We all realize, of course, that the mere mechanical repe- 
tition of religious truths and symbols in early childhood is 
not the height and flower of religious experience. The 
promptings of religion in the child must lead to something 
higher; they must lead step by step to the upbuilding of 
character and the deepening of religious convictions. In 
other words, there must come to the growing child, or 
youth, as a token of his spiritual ripeness, a call from God, 


62 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


setting him apart for Christian service. That call gener- 
ally comes with repeated emphasis to many a consecrated 
youth, who has an ear to hear. It comes once, twice, 
thrice, yea, a fourth time at eventide, or toward early 
morning, in the time of quiet contemplation, when the in- 
ner voice is best heard; or it may come nearer and nearer, 
and speak to us with convincing power, so that we almost 
feel as if God were laying His hand upon us in order to 
make known to us our high prophetic destiny. Unfortu- 
nately, like Samuel, we often at first mistake God’s voice 
for Eli’s, and believing it to be a human voice, we fail to 
return the proper answer. We lie down again to sleep and 
only too often our convictions and fleeting resolves come 
to nothing. Oh, that at such a crisis some kind-hearted, 
intelligent Eli were about to interpret to us not only the 
meaning of the voice but also at the same time to teach us 
to say, “ Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” 

Our proneness to mistake the divine call for a human 
voice is partly due to the fact that Abraham, Moses, Sam- 
uel, and others each heard the divine voice differently. At 
one time God may speak to a receptive heart in Mesopo- 
tamia, at another, to a reverent inquirer through a flaming 
bush, at still another, in the hushed silence of the night to 
a consecrated youth in the temple at Shiloh, or through the 
pressure of circumstances. Life is full of God’s voices, 
but for lack of spiritual discernment they are not heard. 
When we think of God’s voice we immediately think of 
the revelation of God’s will in the Bible. Truly, God calls 
many young men by the ministry of the Word. But how 
are these calls received? The youthful reader of the Bible 
will look upon the divine call as having been spoken by the 
voice of the Lord or of Jesus to men living two or three 
thousand years ago, and therefore not applicable to him in 
any special sense. The youthful church attendant looks 
upon the call of God audibly articulated by every faithful 


THE CALL OF SAMUEL 63 


preacher of the gospel as the voice of the minister which is 
directed at no one in particular. Or, he may even, under 
the momentary flush of a fleeting enthusiasm, say, as Sam- 
uel did, “ Here am I,” only to desert the Lord of the tem- 
ple for the gains of the market-place, or for the transient 
pleasures of a selfish and sin-cursed world. 

Or, if he comes at all to listen and to worship with any 
degree of regularity the repetition of God’s call to the 
ministry soon loses its impressiveness ; he comes to church, 
not to hear and obey, but to hear in order to relegate what 
he has heard into the sphere of blissful forgetfulness. His 
pre-occupied mind is not in the posture really to listen and 
to obey the divine call. If he is at all perplexed as to the 
meaning of the voice which he has heard, instead of going 
to Eli, or to some competent interpreter of the voice, he 
soon contracts the harmful habit of listening for miracu- 
lous voices and of sleeping to dream. ‘The result is that 
the miraculous voice of Jehovah does not become audible 
to the senses. Why not take all such perplexities, doubts, 
and silent questionings to God in prayer? This is what 
Paul did after his remarkable experience on the road to 
Damascus. He says, “ Immediately I conferred not with 
flesh and blood.” He did not immediately confer with the 
elders of the Jewish Sanhedrin, nor with the elders of the 
mother church at Jerusalem. If he had consulted the for- 
mer we can readily surmise what might have happened ; if 
he had gone to the latter before subjecting himself to a 
season of prayer, they would have questioned most seri- 
ously the motives of their formidable inquisitor. I rather 
think he conferred first of all with the Lord. And well he 
might, for He is the only infallible interpreter as to what 
our lifework should be. But to ascertain God’s will in the 
matter we must possess an open mind and a sincere heart. 
With such a state of heart, God’s voice will speak again to 

our inner consciousness, and in His divine presence we 


64 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


will be ready to exclaim, “ Speak, Lord; for Thy servant 
heareth.” Young man, you will attain your majority not 
at the usual age of twenty-one; in the eyes of God your 
full manhood begins at the moment in which you know 
that God is speaking to you. Let God lead you to your 
lifework, and if it is a call to the ministry, learn to obey 


that call with the willing obedience of a Samuel. 


“Still, as of old, Thy precious word 


a 


Is by the nations dimly heard; 
The hearts its holiness hath stirred 
Are weak and few. 
Wise men the secret dare not tell; 
Still in Thy temple slumbers well 
Good Eli: O, like Samuel, 
Lord, here am I! 


‘Few years, no wisdom, no renown, 


Only my life can I lay down; 
Only my heart, Lord, to Thy throne 
I bring; and pray 
A child of Thine I may go forth, 
And spread glad tidings through the earth, 
And teach sad hearts to know Thy worth! 
Lord, here am [!” 


IV 
THE CALL OF AMOS 


Amos 3:7-8; 7:15 


common people under the compulsion of the divine 

call. Amos, however, was a very uncommon man. 
He has the distinction of being the first prophet whose ut- 
terances were recorded by himself and handed down to 
our time in the form of a book which has come to be re- 
garded as a Hebrew classic. His book is a work of no 
common literary merit; it-is one of the best examples of 
pure Hebrew style. Many of our older commentators do 
our prophet a grave injustice by representing him as an un- 
couth rustic, lacking in literary refinement, because of a de- 
fective education. This supposed literary deficiency really 
goes back to Jerome’s worthless verdict on the literary 
style of Amos, expressed in his introduction to the book of 
Amos. Arguing from the prophet’s humble antecedents, 
Jerome expresses the opinion that he was “rude in 
speech ” (imperitus sermone). This statement is not borne 
out by the facts. It is true, his figures of speech are taken 
from rural life, but they are all used with telling force and 
with the utmost skill. Being a shepherd, he would as a 
matter of course make frequent use of words and expres- 
sions suggested by his calling. But in the presentation of 
his ideas he is sometimes so skillful that one would hardly 
believe him identical with the shepherd and husbandman 
of Tekoa. He was a most remarkable man, and not the 
untutored rustic some would have us believe he was. 


65 


ch haa shepherd Amos came from the ranks of the 


66 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Let us, therefore, have done once and for all, with all 
attempts to belittle the education of the prophet Amos in 
order to magnify the work of divine inspiration. God, in 
inspiring his prophets, does not, as some would suppose, 
put a premium upon ignorance. The prophecy of Amos 
shows that inspiration does not utterly destroy a man’s 
individuality, much less his vocabulary and mode of 
thought. Although Amos was not a member of one of the 
prophetic guilds of his day, composed for the most part of 
flattering soothsayers and fortune-tellers, prophesying for 
gain, and working themselves up periodically into a mor- 
bid state of ecstatic frenzy, he was by no means devoid of 
the essentials of an education such as his own time af- 
forded. His social position was no bar to his equipping 
himself with the culture of the day. He was thoroughly 
familiar with the history of the:chosen race. He knew the 
history of Abraham, of Moses, and of Samuel, his epoch- 
making predecessors in the prophetic office. He was a 
keen observer of the trend of things, and soon learned to 
wield a ready pen. As the first outstanding prophet since 
the time of Samuel, and as the first of the great literary 
prophets of the eighth and succeeding centuries, he, too, 
may be said to usher in a new era in the religious history 
of Israel. That he was not looked upon as an uneducated 
shepherd by his brilliant successors in the prophetic office 
is seen from the influence he exerted on the writings of 
Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others. The life of 
a shepherd does not disqualify a man from becoming a 
great prophet; Abraham and Moses, be it remembered in 
passing, were shepherds. 

The home of Amos was in Tekoa, a small village situ- 
ated on a commanding hill, six miles south of Bethlehenn. 
By occupation he was a shepherd and a fig-cultivator. He 
was engaged in rearing a species of sheep prized for the 
excellence of their wool. ‘As a wool-grower he naturally 


THE CALL OF AMOS 67 


sought the markets of the land, where he came into con- 
tact with the merchants of Israel and Judah, and with 
tradesmen hailing from the surrounding countries. Cen- 
tres of population, such as Bethel, Jerusalem, Gilgal, Sa- 
maria, and Damascus afforded numerous opportunities for 
a closer acquaintance with the prevailing social and re- 
ligious conditions of his time. Blessed as he was with a 
religious conscience, he doubtless returned with a heavy 
heart to the quiet simplicity of Tekoa, brooding over the 
wickedness and folly of a misguided and superficial people. 

What were some of the conditions, you ask, of the time 
in which the prophet lived? -Although born in the land of 
Judah, Amos selected the northern kingdom as the scene 
of his ministry, possibly for the reason that Israel, in the 
prophet’s time, was more important than Judah. Conse- 
quently we shall limit ourselves to a brief description of 
the political, social, and religious conditions prevailing in 
the North at about the middle of the eighth century B. c. 

Politically, Israel enjoyed an almost unprecedented era 
of peace and prosperity. Jeroboam II (781-740 B. c.) and 
his victorious army had succeeded in silencing Israel’s 
hereditary enemies. The ancient borders were restored, 
and part of the territory of Damascus became tributary, all 
of which tended to the economic enrichment of the land. 
Israel had become a wealthy commercial power, and men 
with an eye to business began to congratulate themselves 
upon the glorious success of the splendid reign of Jero- 
boam the Second. 

But political success, achieved by force of arms, gener- 
ally reacts upon the social life of the victors. A group of 
courtiers and nobles soon constituted a landed aristocracy 
at the expense of poor farmers who, for one reason or 
another, had been obliged to borrow money or grain at 
exorbitant rates. Numerous foreclosures resulted in the 
creation of vast estates in defiance of the principles of 


68 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


brotherhood. The absorption of small holdings by un- 
scrupulous creditors often meant, not only the impoverish- 
ment but also the enslavement of the insolvent creditor and 
his family. In the cities dishonest merchants were grow- 
ing rich by fraudulent means. In the mad haste after 
riches men then, as now, would stoop to all sorts of ques- 
tionable methods to attain their object. Even judges could 
be approached and bribed by wealthy defendants. Pala- 
tial houses were erected by the rising aristocracy with 
money extorted from the poor. Among the luxurious ap- 
pointments in these mansions we find couches inlaid with 
ivory brought from distant lands. The wealthy grandees 
and their wives lived on the fat of the land. Not content 
with cups, they drank wine out of huge bowls amid deli- 
cate perfumes and frivolous music, vocal and instru- 
mental. A luxuriously inclined womanhood, we are sorry 
to add, had its guilty share in the general decline of social 
morality. 

But the shameless immorality, of which the prophet 
speaks with such manly indignation (2:7), must be as- 
cribed, in part at least, to certain obscene practices associ- 
ated with Canaanitish nature-worship, which had become 
a part of Israel’s worship. Think of the awful monstros- 
ity of worshipping Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the form 
of acalf! The priests of Bethel and of Dan would prob- 
ably have met the objection by saying, We are not image- 
worshippers ; the young ox is simply a visible symbol of 
our national God. But what happened? Modesty forbids 
almost that we should even mention such things ; and yet, 
for truth’s sake, we must allude to this phase of our sub- 
ject, otherwise we shall fail to appreciate the prophet’s 
vehemence in denouncing the sins of his time. Incredible 
as it may seem to us, public women were attached to the 
sanctuaries, as in parts of India today. Garments pledged 
by the poor which, according to Hebrew law, should ‘have 


THE CALL OF AMOS 69 


been restored to the owner at sunset, were kept by the 
heartless creditors and carried into the temple precincts, 
where they were used as carpets by the drunken and im- 
moral worshippers. This immorality, as among the Ca- 
naanites, had become part and parcel of the worship. 
How could it have been otherwise? The figure of an ox 
could not be adored by a cattle-breeding people without 
suggesting in their minds thoughts dangerously akin to the 
foul tempers of their heathen neighbours. That religion, 
as practiced at Bethel and at Dan, had become shockingly 
immoral can more readily be imagined than described. 
Jehovah’s people in the North were given over to wine and 
women, to the love of money and luxurious living. They 
sought to atone for these things by an abundance of sacri- 
fices, of burnt offerings, meal offerings, thank offerings, 
and freewill offerings, and by the payment of tithes over 
and above the legal requirement. 

Externally there was much show of religion without the 
substance thereof. In short, it was a time of religious | 
deterioration, resulting in social injustice and in the break- 
down of social morality. Religion, once again, as in the 
days of Eli, was in need of a reformer. Ere the lamp of 
true religion went out in the temple at Bethel, God raised 
up Amos for the spiritual renovation of the house of Is- 
rael. Unlike Samuel and Isaiah, the prophetic call came to 
Amos, not in the sanctuary, but out in the open pastures in 
the vicinity of Tekoa. Like the immortal shepherd in the 
land of Midian, he was summoned to his prophetic career 
while he was doing his ordinary work. “ Jehovah took me 
from behind the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, 
Broghesy unto aes people Israel” ay ie AS). How the shep- " 
came to him, we do not know. No etitien is made of a 
miraculous appearance of the God of Israel. The word of 
Jehovah breaks upon him without any intermediary. Was 


70 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the voice of God in this case inaudible to human ears, and 
audible only to his own conscience? I rather think so. 
While the argument from silence is never conclusive, I am 
nevertheless convinced that a miraculous appearance, if 
such had been granted to the shepherd of Tekoa, would 
hardly have been omitted from the sacred record, owing 
to its importance in the prophet’s life. But, let me ask, 
Does the prophetic call become less real to a man, when it 
takes the form of the “ still small voice,” whispering to his 
heart and conscience that God has a special work for him 
todo? Indeed, not. In any event, Amos did not entertain 
the slightest doubt as to the reality of his call. The Lord 
had said, ‘‘ Go,” and he went, because he became conscious 
of a call which it was his duty to obey. “ He revealeth His 
secret unto His servants the prophets. The lion hath 
roared, who will not fear? Jehovah hath spoken, who can 
but prophesy?” (3:7-8). God communicates His pur- 
pose, punitive and otherwise, to His prophets in order that 
they may warn the people of the coming disaster and turn 
them to repentance. Woe to the man who would refuse to 
make known the revelation of God’s punitive purpose con- 
cerning Israel! The message withheld by him would be 
like a burning fire in his bones. He cannot help himself ; 
he must prophesy and declare that purpose to an idolatrous 
people. 

The prophet Amos felt an irresistible personal convic- 
tion that he ought to deliver the message entrusted to him, 
whether man will hear or forbear. Accordingly, he left 
all and journeyed to Bethel, the ecclesiastical capital of the 
northern kingdom, there to denounce the sins of Israel. 
The burden of his message is the pronouncement of 
inevitable doom upon a faithless nation bewitched by 
Canaanitish image worship and forgetful of the most ele- 
mentary moral duties. Arrived at the national sanctuary 
of Bethel, where all Israel had gathered to celebrate a 


THE CALL OF AMOS 71 


_great festival, Amos suddenly interrupts, with his fore- 
bodings of woe (ch. 5), the joyous calf-worshippers. 
“Hear this word of lamentation which I lift up against 
you, O house of Israel. Fallen—to rise nevermore—is the 
virgin of Israel; flung down on her own ground, with none 
to raise her up. The city that marched forth a thousand, 
shall come back with a hundred; and the city that marched 
forth a hundred, shall come back with but ten.” The 
prophet sees the nation here, as elsewhere, compared to a 
virgin, hurled to the ground and crushed by the over- 
whelming avalanche of Assyrian invasion at the call of an 
outraged Deity. The nation is as good as dead spiritually 
and morally. 

Yet Amos, like all true preachers, discerns the outlines 
of what might prove to be the silver lining around the 
judgment-cloud, the approach of which he has just an- 
nounced: a change of heart on the part of the guilty na- 
tion might do much to ward off the certainty of divine 
retribution. Let the people turn to Jehovah and amend 
their lives. The God of Israel is a righteous God who is 
righteous in all His dealings with His people. He cannot, 
in contrast with the carnal deities of Canaan, who were 
totally indifferent to social morality and justice, tolerate 
social injustice. In His eyes religion and conduct are in- 
separable. If they will substitute morality for immoral- 
ity, and justice for injustice, then He will be their God, 
and they shall be His people. ‘‘ Seek not Bethel, for 
Bethel shall come to nought. Seek Jehovah and ye shalt 
live ; seek good and not evil, that ye may live, and Jehovah 
God of Hosts will be with you.” But the contemplation of 
actual conditions is evidently too much even for the 
prophet himself, for he continues, “Ah, they that turn 
justice to gall! I know how many are your crimes, and 
how arrogant your sins; ye browbeat the righteous, take 
bribes, and deprive the poor of his legal rights! There- 


72 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


fore the prudent man in such a time keeps silence, for it 
is an evil time.” Religion and ethics belong together. So- 
cial wrongs cannot be atoned for by the offering of sacri- 
ficial bribes to a righteous God. “TI hate, I loathe your 
feasts, and I will not smell the savour of your sacrifices. 
Though ye bring to me burnt offerings and your meal 
offerings of fattedi calves, I will not look at them. Let 
cease from me the noise of thy songs; to the playing of 
thy viols I will not listen. But let justice roll on like 
water, and righteousness like an unfailing stream.” It is 
a mistake to suppose that Amos meant to condemn all rit- 
ualistic observances as such. He was not blind to the fact 
that rites and ceremonies might, under proper conditions, 
be an actual aid to true religion. 

To understand his attitude toward external rites, it must 
be borne in mind that Amos had to contend against a one- 
sided emphasis upon ritual to the exclusion of ethics at a 
time when men had begun to divorce religion from the 
affairs of common life. The outward forms of religion 
were magnified, and altogether too little importance was 
attached to the inner spirit of righteousness. The cruel 
social conditions, of which the prophet complained, were 
due to wrong conceptions of God’s character. His main 
contention is that external rites are absolutely worthless if 
they are to be a substitute for righteous dealings one with 
another. True religion cannot dispense with the social 
virtues required by a just God who is the Father of all 
men. Sacramental mysteries have no efficacy in the face 
of wilful disobedience to the will of a supreme righteous 
ruler. Indeed, they are an insult to God Himself, whose 
character cannot be compromised in this way. Woe to 
those who are content with present conditions without en- 
deavouring on their part to establish righteous relations as 
between man and man! ‘ Woe to them that are at ease in 
Zion and that trust in the mountain of Samaria, the no- 


THE CALL OF AMOS 73 


table men,” the rich and opulent, who are satisfied with the 
glittering tinsel of political prosperity at the very moment 
when God was about to arise in judgment upon a highly 
favoured but apostate nation. In spite of the temporal 
and spiritual blessings vouchsafed unto them from on 
high, they have departed, under the influence of Canaan- 
itish ideas of worship, from the Giver of every good and 
perfect gift. The nation is ripe for judgment. And yet, 
in pity for His people, God repeatedly changes His puni- 
tive purposes concerning Israel in the hope that they may 
yet turn to Him and live. 

In chapter seven we have one last vehement call to re- 
pentance. Amos tells the pilgrims at Bethel that God has 
revealed to him in a series of visions what soon must come 
to pass. He describes the approach of a plague of locusts, 
such as he had already seen in actual experience (4:9), 
devouring the vegetation of the land, but before they could 
complete their deadly work, Amos intercedes on behalf of 
his people, urging its inability to recover from the blight- 
ing effect of this awful scourge, and he prays, “O Lord 
Jehovah, forgive, I beseech Thee.” His prayer is heard, 
God agreeing to suspend the full execution of His pur- 
pose. The vision of a terrible drought is next described. 
Again the prophet intercedes and obtains a mitigation of 
the threatened punishment. The third vision, which 
aroused the alarm and opposition of Amaziah, the chief 
priest of the golden calf at Bethel, depicts Jehovah with a 
plumbline in His hand, measuring a crooked wall before 
tearing it down. Intuitively the prophet discerns the 
deeper meaning of this symbolical act. The crooked wall 
is a striking illustration of the moral obliquity of the peo- 
ple and their consequent fitness for divine judgment. 
What the result will be is explained in language of start- 
ling vividness, “The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid 
waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with 


| 


74 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the sword.” It was at this point that Amos was inter- 
rupted by Amaziah, the high priest of the calf-worship- 
pers, who sent word to Jeroboam, saying, “ Amos hath 
conspired against thee,” thus reminding us of the words 
of the‘notorious high priest of a later time, when he said 
in the presence of the supreme Prophet, “ He speaketh 
against Ceesar.”” Amaziah, who was conscious of no spir- 
itual power with which to oppose the fearless prophet, 
fortifies himself, for lack of something better, by his duty 
to the powers that be, and orders Amos to leave the royal 
chapel and return to his sheepfold at Tekoa. “ Thou vis- 
ionary, go! Get thee off to the land of Judah; and earn 
thy bread there, and there play the prophet. But at Bethel 
thou shalt not again prophesy, for this is the king’s sanctu- 
ary and the royal temple.” 

Amos, of course, knew all that; for that very reason he 
had chosen Bethel, where his message would produce the 
most immediate and powerful effect. But he disclaims 
being a professional prophet of that vagrant, vulgar, dis- 
clamatory and mercenary type, the qualities of whose 
prophecies might depend upon the size of the fee received 
for such services. As a genuine prophet he was superior 
to all such considerations. He was no hireling; he was 


not a member of a time-serving institution. He did not 


wear the black camel’s hair cloak and leathern girdle. 


‘ Consequently he received no fees and no gifts. He had 


} 


his own means of subsistence. Although he has no con- . 
nection with any official priesthood or conventional pro- 
phetic order he has not adopted his vocation without any 
special fitness, or inward call.. His prophetic office was 
imposed upon him by a divine mandate, by the categorical. 
imperative of conscience and of duty, which he could not 
resist. He preaches because he must and not as the pro- 
phetic college or guild prescribes. He is not a member of 
those traditional. guilds, which rarely produced a real 


THE CALL OF AMOS 75 


prophet, the only exception being Elisha. Nevertheless, 
he is a prophet in reality, as the third chapter of his proph- 
ecy implies. His answer to the wicked insinuations of 
Amaziah, who seems to have been less anxious for the 
~security of Jeroboam’s throne than for his ecclesiastical 
position, is full of dignity born of the consciousness of his 
divine commission. He rises up like a giant and says to 
the hireling priest, ‘‘ No prophet I, nor son of prophet I, 
but a shepherd, and a dresser of wild figs; and Jehovah 
took me from behind the flock and said, Go and prophesy 
to My people.” Amos now informs Amaziah that he 
would live to see the fulfilment of his predictions con- 
cerning Israel. On a former occasion, the prophet, no 
longer expecting Israel to repent, had exclaimed, “ Pre- 
pare to meet thy God, O Israel!” The truth of his 
prediction was fully established thirty years later (722 
B. C.), when the nation was carried into captivity by the 
Assyrians. | | 
What can we learn from.the fearless and intrepid shep- ~ 
herd prophet of Tekoa? For one thing, he teaches us to 
make a vigorous protest against the tendency of our time 
‘to divorce religion from the affairs of common life. 
Politically, the practice of our statesmen and legislators 
is to regard the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ as 
_ applicable to the individual but not to the national group 
of which the individual is a part. If the gospel is good for 
the individual, it ought to be good for a group of individ- 
uals as well. But why argue an axiomatic truth? The 
truth of the matter is that our political leaders are not 
ready as yet, any more than the nobles of Samaria, to 
abandon the worship of the golden calf and all that that 
implies. In early times the idea of strength, of might, and 
of power was frequently emphasized as one of the most 
prominent attributes of Deity. It so happened that under 
the influence of Canaanitish nature-worship, the political 


76 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


leaders of the northern kingdom selected, as an emblem of 
Jehovah, the young ox, because, by its physical strength 
and prowess, it best symbolized the idea of power and 
might, which they associated with the God of Israel. 
Jeroboam and his house have found numerous successors 
who still adhere most religiously to the barbarous prin- 
ciple that “might makes right.’ It would be futile to 
expect in national and international politics the application 
of the Golden Rule as long as men persist in trying to ap- 
proach God through the emblem of an ox. Oh, for men 
like Amos to teach us the first principles of true religion 
and to arouse us from our self-complacent trust in the arm 
of flesh! May they have the moral courage to stand up in 
the high places of the land and admonish our leaders, and 
us, to seek first the kingdom of God, and then, by an hon- 
est application of the principles of the gospel, our political 
problems will be solved. May they, as sentinels to the 
camp of God, warn us of the insidious presence in our na- 
tional life of the Amaziahs who, in serving the selfish in- 
terests of Jeroboam or Cesar, forget to serve the living 
God, Young men, here is a task that will challenge and 
test your courage and heroism. 

The same principle of might ruling over right prevails 
to a large extent in modern society. This, by the way, 
explains why we have not been able to eliminate it from 
our national life. We have already spoken of the oppres- 
sion of the poor, of the heartless foreclosures of a landed 
aristocracy, of the extortionate methods of money-mad 
business men, and of the perversion of justice in the law 
courts of the eighth century before our era. It is signifi- 
cant to note that all these forms of oppression were prac- 
tised by the leaders of Israelitish society under the sem- 
blance of Canaanitish law in contrast with Hebrew law, 
which breathed an entirely different spirit. The principles 
of the former were based on the value of things; the lat- 


THE CALL OF AMOS 77 


ter, on the value of man as a member of the Hebrew com- 
monwealth. Men, with an eye to their own advantage, 
naturally adopted, at the expense of the poor, the prin- 
ciples of Canaanitish law as the best means of acquiring 
the power that comes from money and things in general. 
Is it any wonder that Amos blazed up in indignation at the 
sight of avaricious men resorting to every form of oppres- 
sion in order to get the things they coveted? With Amos 
as our guide we come to the social conditions of our own 
time. A glance at his prophecies soon discloses the fact 
that we, too, are tempted to maintain our religion at the 
expense of social justice. Anyone who is familiar with 
the economic history of the Middle Ages and of our own 
time, will have to admit that the vast estates of our landed 
aristocracy have been accumulated by a strict adherence 
to Canaanitish business practices founded upon the prin- 
ciple of might. A selfish business world, firmly believing 
in the survival of the fittest, and trying to live unto itself 
alone, ought to learn the alphabet of a sensitive social con- 
sciousness. As in the days of the prophet, there are those 
who grind the faces of the poor, and build houses of hewn 
stone on the avenues and boulevards of our cities. Who 
knows but that many a princely mansion is nothing more 
than a monument of extortion? Within recent years cap- 
tains of industry have driven competitors out of business 
and, after reducing competition to a minimum, have ac- 
cumulated enormous fortunes by charging the poor con- 
sumer all that “the traffic will bear.” The same grasping 
and selfish spirit has infected even the ranks of those who 
are proud of their Christian name, but who, in the conduct 
of their business, will permit themselves to be as unjust 
and as unfair as the law or the customs of the “ Canaan- 
itish ” market will allow. 

And as regards the administration of justice, the theory 
is that all men are equal before the law. But what are the 


78 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


facts? It will be no exaggeration to say that some of our 
best legal advisers are found reclining on the ivory 
couches of the magnates of “ Samaria,” feasting them- 
selves at the banquets of mammon, and not where they 
ought to be found—down in the‘slums and poor tenement 
districts defending the rights of impoverished widows and 
orphans. Of course, there are laudable exceptions, of men 
and women whose consciences will not allow them to bow 
down before King Mammon whose throne has been es- 
tablished upon the principle of might. Nevertheless, we 
are justified in saying that in the world of industry and 
commerce, sordid materialism is still on the ascendant in 
spite of the warnings of One who, though He might have 
been rich, became poor for our sake. Jesus, the supreme 
Prophet, says to our commercial world, “ Beware of cov- 
etousness. .. . Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth cor- 
rupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal; 
for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 
. . . No man can serve two masters. Ye cannot serve 
God and mammon.” Lord, send us men with the moral 
courage of an Amos to denounce our un-Christian meth- 
ods of making and spending money, and to proclaim with 
new emphasis the gospel of mutual goodwill! 

Morally, conditions are far from ideal. The social sins 
and vices which ruined Israel and ancient Rome have not 
become extinct in our modern civilization. God has 
blessed us as no other nation. But who will deny that 
great temporal blessings and great prosperity are fre- 
quently associated with great corruption? Among both 
rich and poor alike social sins are rampant. At the root 
of it all is the worship, in one form or another, of the god 
of sensual pleasure once associated at Bethel with a holy 


THE CALL OF AMOS 719 


God, to whom every form of immorality and social im- 
purity is an abomination. We must not forget that our 
God is a moral God, and that true religion must be the 
animating and inspiring motive of a pure morality. But 
alas! How far removed we are from the moral code of 
the Master Himself, who taught us to regard the sinful 
desire, the evil thought, as equivalent to the sinful act it- 
self. Good Lord, deliver us from the promptings and 
temptations of an evil heart! Purify the thoughts of our 
minds and hearts by Thy holy presence. Let us never, in 
the eyes of the world, compromise, either in thought or 
deed, God’s holiness by an immoral act. Religion and 
social purity really belong together, 

As to religion itself, no one will be bold enough to main- 
tain that the religious conditions at Bethel do not suggest 
any modern parallels. It will scarcely be denied that the 
Church is suffering from a very fatal separation of re- 
ligion from the common duties of daily life, not because it 
was meant to be so by the Founder of Christianity, but 
because so many of our church members still persist in 
dividing their life into two or more different compart- 
ments. For instance, there is the religious compartment 
reserved for religion on the Sabbath day, and there is the 
secular compartment, comprising the economic, the social, 
and the political activities of the six so-called secular days 
of the week. Now, you must not mix up the things be- 
longing in the religious compartment with those belonging 
in the secular compartment. Why, it would never do to 
put a little religion into their secular affairs, for that is a 
different sphere. That would be shocking and very dis- 
concerting to their self-complacent lives. Such a concep- 
tion of religion often leads, as at Bethel, to an outward 
display of religion which, on the surface at least, may have 
all the appearance of true piety. It finds expression in 
church attendance, in the singing of hymns, in the mechan- 


80 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ical repetition of the Lord’s Prayer and of the Creed, in 
contributions for the current expenses of the congregation, 
and occasionally, in a donation toward the benevolent en- 
terprises of the church. 

They are not irreligious; they are not atheists. Intel- 
lectually they assent to God’s existence, but their God 
seems to be satisfied with the mechanical and perfunctory 
performance of external rites and observances. They 
seem to think that God limits Himself to the weekly Sab- 
bath and its observances, and consequently takes no inter- 
est in what they do the rest of the week. ‘They even 
partake of the blood of the Sacrament without any thought 
of applying in their lives the social consequences which 
the Sacrament of the Altar plainly teaches. How can they 
have communion with the Christ who, as the Servant of 
servants, went about doing good, and who gave His pre- 
cious life as a ransom for many? Is there really nothing 
at all for a Christian to do? One might think so to judge 
from the barren and fruitless lives of so many nominal 
Christians of the present time. ‘Their religion lacks the 
moral tone. ‘Io them, the moral obligations of religion 
have no practical meaning. Like the priest and the Levite, 
“they pass by on the other side.” It is sufficient that they 
worship in the temple. What a travesty of religion! 
Could it be possible that they are ignorant of the moral 
requirements of the Gospel? Why, no; it is the religion 
of the golden calf in which they are chiefly interested, 
because it divests religion of its moral contents. Its mod- 
ern devotees are trying to persuade themselves that they 
can worship God, with both eyes fixed upon the golden 
calf which caters to their selfish interests. 

The golden calf is one of the many wayside shrines of 
modern life, claiming its devotees by the thousands, yea, 
by the myriads. Who, in the face of such conditions, can 
sit at ease in Zion, while the mighty voice of God is speak- 


} 


THE CALL OF AMOS 81 


ing through the thunder-tones of Amos, and saying, “ Woe 
to them that are at ease in Zion! Prepare to meet thy 
God, O Israel!” God in times past has spoken to men 
through patriarchs, prophets and apostles. He still speaks 
to us by prophetic preachers, who know how to sound a 
timely warning to a sleeping camp which is unaware of 
the foe’s presence. May all young men of the Amos-type 
have ears to listen to the call of God, thundering some- 
times in great majesty, or speaking in quiet, low accents to 
men’s consciences in order to arouse them to a sense of 
their duty in the midst of so pressing and great dangers. 
When God calls we must be ready to. leave our occupa- 
tions, however remunerative and. attractive, and make all 
necessary preparations for the delivery of the message 
which He has entrusted to us. True, the call of God often 
involves the preaching of unpleasant truths. But can 
God’s spokesman do otherwise than declare the whole 
counsel of God? Of course, if he has no conscience, he 
will limit his message to the prophesying of smooth things. 
This is what one might expect from a calf worshipper, like 
Amaziah, but not from a man with the religious and moral 
convictions of an Amos. ‘To deliver the prophet’s mes- 
sage, or to preach the gospel in its purity, is no easy task. 
But the man who is possessed of God loses all fear for his 
personal safety. His only fear is the fear of arousing 
God’s anger by withholding from His people part of the 
message of Jehovah. “ The lion hath roared, who will 
not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but 
prophesy?” Under the compulsion of such a call a man 
feels like Paul, when he said, “ Necessity is laid upon me; 
yea, woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.’’ Woe to any 
young man who, when divinely called, turns his back upon | 
such a vocation! It were better for him if he had never 


been born. 


V 
THE CALL OF HOSEA 


HosEa 1-3 


sound a timely note of warning to a nation in po- 

litical, social, and spiritual decay. The secret of 
God’s purpose concerning Israel is revealed, not to excite 
wonder, but to inspire the prophet with the message which 
he is to deliver. Jehovah is compared to a roaring lion 
ready to spring upon apostate Israel. Hence the lion-like 
courage of the man in making known to Israel God’s puni- 
tive purpose, for he is under divine orders. His message 
may be summed up in the warning cry, “ Prepare to meet 
thy God, O Israel!” But the sternness of the message is 
tempered by the hope of repentance. Let Israel, there- 
fore, improve her opportunity, and repent ere the day of 
grace be ended! The prophet’s admonition, however, is 
all in vain. This is proved by the mission of his younger 
contemporary Hosea, who was a native not of the south- 
ern but of the northern kingdom. He, too, compares God 
to a lion, and yet there is a difference between the stern 
shepherd of Tekoa, emphasizing the moral aspects of re- 
ligion and the almost evangelical tone of this prophet of 
grace who interprets religion in terms of love. Hosea is 
the St. John of the literary prophets. While Amos may be 
said to speak of God’s justice, Hosea speaks of His yearn- 
ing love. By drawing this comparison we do not mean to 
imply that Hosea’s sense of the inevitableness of ethical 
discipline is less keen than that of Amos. But we do 


82 


Ba great task of Amos, as we have seen, was to 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 83 


affirm that Hosea penetrates into the very depths of the 
divine nature when he proclaims love to be the ultimate 
element in religion. 

The power of redeeming love moves man to a more 
genuine repentance than the consciousness of outraged 
justice. To spurn God’s love is infinitely worse than the 
violation of the sovereignty of law. The key-doctrine of 
Hosea’s book is this: God is holy love. The primary idea 
in his mind is the love-relation of Jehovah to Israel as 
expressed by the figure of marriage. This marriage rela- 
tion between Jehovah the husband and Israel the bride, is 
a picture of the covenant between God and His people. 
The rest of Hosea’s thoughts follow from it as corollaries. 
The evils which he describes are all of one piece; they are 
all rooted in Israel’s cardinal sin, and that sin is apostasy 
from Jehovah. Man-made kings and foreign alliances, 
idolatry and immorality are all instances of Israel’s un- 
faithfulness and disloyalty to God. 

Where no distinction is drawn between the sacred and 
the secular, Israel’s political apostasy, interpreted in terms 
of religion, amounts to a violation of the marriage cove- 
nant entered into between the nation and its theocratic 
head. Hosea denounces foreign ‘alliances because of a 
similar association, among the heathen, of religion and 
politics. ‘To seek alliance with Assyria or Egypt implied 
the recognition, for all practical purposes at least, of the 
existence of foreign gods, and of their ability to further 
the political ends for which the alliance was made. The 
blending of politics with religion tended to a reciprocity 
of religious practices, and in the case of Israel, to numer- 
ous idolatrous accretions to the religion of God’s people. 
Such a national policy was an act of disloyalty to Jehovah. 
It indicated alienation from Israel’s divine husband, who 
was entitled to the whole-hearted affection of His bride. 
Tacitly it implied distrust of Jehovah’s ability to protect 


84 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


His bride in the event of threatening encroachments from 
without. And besides, it jeopardized Israel’s unique mis- 
sion in the world. An earlier trace of the nation’s miscon- 
ception of its true mission may be seen in Israel’s demand 
for a king of the type possessed by the surrounding na- 
tions, and in Samuel’s unwilling acquiescence to that de- 
mand because of the ever-present danger of trusting in 
militarism and in the allurements of heathen civilization 
rather than in Israel’s God. The distinctively religious 
mission of the nation must not be obscured by selfish po- 
litical aspirations. The attitude of Hosea and other proph- 
ets is a striking anticipation of the significant words of 
Jesus, addressed to the representative of a great world 
power, “ My kingdom is not of this world.” 

Hosea’s antipathy to the reigning dynasty of Israel is 
accounted for by the fact that the kings of the house of 
Jeroboam had sought alliance with idolatrous nations, and 
this encouraged idolatry (I Kings 12:28; II Kings 
15:19). Israel’s defection from the house of David was 
nothing short of defection from Jehovah also, because of 
its disastrous effects upon the religion of the northern 
kingdom. Hosea, as we know, prophesied toward the 
close of the reign of Jeroboam the Second, and during the 
political turmoils succeeding the death of this powerful 
monarch. ‘The successors of Jeroboam the Second had 
for the most part ascended the throne through violence 
and murder, resulting in political chaos. Thus, for ex- 
ample, four of the seven kings of Israel enjoying the 
brief tenancy of a blood-stained throne were assassinated 
between 740 and 732 8. c. These man-made kings, who 
were sooner or later man-murdered, are the twin targets 
of the prophet’s scorn, because they and their predeces- 
sors had sought by the introduction of the worship of for- 
eign idols, to rival Jehovah Himself. No wonder that the 
prophet arrayed himself against these artificial kings and 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 85 


their artificial gods, who were both the work of men’s 
hands. “They have made kings but not by Me. With 
their silver and their gold they manufactured for them- 
selves idols, only that they might be cut off,” and carried 
into exile (8:4). 

The confused condition of Israelitish society is equally 
hopeless. The whole nation is morally corrupt. On every 
side social degeneracy, vice, and immorality prevail. “ Je- 
hovah hath a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for 
there is no fidelity, or lovingkindness, or (practical) 
knowledge of God in the land. There is nought but per- 
jury, and breaking of faith, and killing, and stealing, and 
adultery. .. . They are all adulterers” (4:1, 2; 7:4). 
The material prosperity of the time of Amos persisted 
with its attendant evils. Luxurious living, however, 
coupled with gross licentiousness and sensuality seems to 
have gained in momentum. The inevitable results of con- 
tinued unchastity, practiced periodically under the alleged 
sanctions of an immoral religion, were becoming more 
and more apparent. The nemesis of fornication was that 
it impaired the people’s intellect; it resulted in abortion, 
sterility, and a decreasing population, and destroyed the 
very foundations of the social unit, the family. The 
prophet exclaims, “ Harlotry takes away the brains... . 
No more birth, no more motherhood, no more conception! 
Fruit they produce not; yea, even when they beget chil- 
dren I slay the darlings of their womb. Give them, O 
Lord, a miscarrying womb and breasts that are dry!” 
(4:11; 9:11, 16): 

Hosea, it will be noted, traces the prevalent immorality 
to the enfeebling worship of the many powers of physical 
life under the name of Baal or nature-worship. The local 
Baalim were looked upon by the Semites in general as the 
dispensers of natural fertility. The increase of field and 
flock as well as of the human race itself was ascribed to 


86 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the creative activity of these imaginary gods who, accord- 
ing to the popular way of thinking, were wedded to the 
people in their respective territories. The relation of a 
god to his people was conceived of in a physical sense, 
which found expression in promiscuous prostitution, and 
hence the synonymous usage of the terms idolatry and har- 
lotry. In Hosea’s day the sensuous Baal or nature- 
worship and Jehovah-worship under the figure of a calf 
or young bull could scarcely be distinguished the one from 
the other. Accordingly the unspiritual calf-worship was 
condemned by the prophet because it lost sight of the true 
ethical character of Jehovah. 

Under the influence of Canaanitish worship and by rea- 
son of the people’s confidence in the propitiatory value of 
sacrificial offerings, conscience was dulled and that im- 
morality permitted which they mingled so shamelessly 
with their religious zeal. To these immoral ritualists, 
Jehovah says, ‘I desire lovingkindness and not sacrifice; 
the (practical) knowledge of God more than burnt offer- 
ings”? (6:6). Such acts of disloyalty on the part of Je- 
hovah’s unfaithful spouse, tending to obscure the purely 
spiritual aspects of Israel’s religion, cannot be atoned for 
by sacrificial victims, “ With their sheep and their cattle 
they go about to seek Jehovah, but they shall not find 
Him” (5:6). Jehovah’s wayward wife, by her idolatry 
and consequent immorality, has broken her troth with her 
divine husband; and although deserving of punishment, 
the love of Jehovah cannot altogether desert her. His 
holy wrath is tempered by the love “that will not let me 
go.” Divine love is not cancelled by Israel’s religious, 
social, moral, and political apostasy. After a severe de- 
nunciation of Israel’s waywardness, Jehovah cries out, 
“How am I to give thee up, O Ephraim? How am I to 
let thee go, O Israel? How am I to give thee up? My 
heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled 


— 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 87 


together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, 
I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God and 
not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee, yet I come 
not to consume!” (11:8, 9). The certainty of Israel’s 
approaching doom did not obscure the divine love. If 
Israel will not turn to God in the days of sweet prosperity, 
then the bitterness of exilic discipline must wean her from 
her paramours. Love, somehow, will prevail in the end. 

How strong a hold this whole idea of Israel’s conjugal 
infidelity to Jehovah had taken of the prophet Hosea 1s 
best illustrated by the first three chapters of his book, de- 
scribing the sad circumstances of his own married life. 
His wife, like so many wives in Israel, proved unfaithful 
as a result of the contaminating influence of the religious 
apostasy of the nation. The heads of families, the prophet 
tells us, need not be surprised at the corruption of their 
wives and daughters when they themselves participate in 
the foreign and impure rites on every hilltop. ‘A spirit 
of harlotry hath led them astray, and they have played the 
harlot from their God. Upon the headlands of the hills 
they sacrifice, and on the heights offer incense, under oak 
or poplar or terebinth, for the shade thereof is pleasant. 
Wherefore your daughters play the harlot and your 
daughters-in-law commit adultery. I will not punish your 
daughters when they play the harlot, nor your daughters- 
in-law when they commit adultery ; for they themselves go 
aside with the harlots, and sacrifice with the common 
women of the shrines! So the stupid people fall to 
ruin!” (4: 13-14). 

What folly for the fathers of Israel to practice impurity 
within the very shadows of Canaanitish altars and at the 
same time imagine that they can keep their womankind 
chaste! The corrupt state of morals, whether in the home, 
or in society at large, must be traced very largely to the 
licentious atmosphere of these breeding places of iniquity. 


88 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Hosea’s domestic experience was the direct outcome of a 
perverted religion. That it resulted in untold heart agony 
to the prophet is easily intelligible. Still, it was not an 
unmixed evil. It helped to crystallize Hosea’s message, 
reflecting like a mirror Jehovah’s experience with Israel. 
With delicate reserve he tells the story and reveals the 
secret of his life. “The beginning of the word of Jehovah 
by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take thee a 
wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land hath 
committed great harlotry-in departing from Jehovah. So 
he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she 
conceived and bore him a son. And Jehovah said unto 
him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while and I shall 
visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will 
bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel; and it 
shall be on that day that I shall break the bow of Israel in 
the Vale of Jezreel. And she conceived again, and bore a 
daughter; and He said to him, Call her name Un-Loved; 
for I will not again have pity on the house of Israel, that 
I should fully forgive them. And she weaned Un-Loved 
and conceived and bore a son, And He said, Call his name 
Not-My-People; for ye are not My people, and I—I am 
not your God” (1: 2-6, 8-9). 

Under the impulse of a warm attachment rapes mar- 
ried one of the many young women who had shared in the 
wild orgies of Baal and Ashtoreth at the hillside shrines. 
Where was the young man to find a marriageable virgin 
when all the land was full of idolatry and its evil. con- 
comitants? Gomer, already contaminated by the religious 
taint of the time, is not called a harlot outright, but a wife 
of harlotry. The evil inclination, the hideous tendency to 
indiscriminate sensuality was latent in her heart. The 
young woman bore him three children, to whom he gave 
names indicative of the impending fate of idolatrous Is- 
rael. Jezreel, the name of the first child, was a reminder 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 89 
of the time-serving policy of the house of Jehu in its fail- 
ure to stem the tide of religious syncretism with its re- 
ligious and moral chaos. Un-Loved betokened that 
Israel’s day of grace was fast drawing to a close, and that 
Jehovah’s love would ere long assume the form of exilic 
discipline in order to bring His wayward bride to her full 
senses. Not-My-People signified that Israel had forfeited 
its unique position as the people of Israel. 

In the second chapter, after a call to repentance, we are 
told that Ephraim forsook Jehovah for Baal because, like 
the Canaanites themselves, wayward Israel had ascribed 
the products of the soil, such as corn, wine, oil, wool, and 
flax to the creative activity of the local gods. The faith- 
less spouse, with her heart divided between God and Baal, 
left her first love for deities falsely supposed to be the 
authors of her material prosperity. ‘‘ She did not know 
that it was I who gave her the corn and the new wine and 
the oil; yea, silver I heaped upon her and gold, wherewith 
they made Baal images” (2:8). The time will come 
when superstitious Israel will learn by bitter experience 
that all things come from Jehovah and belong to Him. He 
will take away from His wandering bride material bless- 
ings attributed to imaginary deities and remove her from 
the land. The Baalim, formerly adored and loved by her, 
will be unable to prevent it. But the discipline will be also 
a means of reformation. Israel will be led back to her 
first love and thus become the recipient of fresh marks of 
confidence and love at the hands of her divine husband. 
Jehovah’s marriage to Israel, it will be superfluous to add, 
was thought of not in a physical sense; it was a moral 
relation. 

The religious apostasy of the nation, as mentioned 
above, had a disastrous effect on the domestic morals of 
the people. From chapter 3 we learn that faithless Gomer, 
with the spirit of harlotry in her heart, abandons Hosea 


90 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


for a paramour, drifting finally, like all of her class, into 
slavery. With that brutal cruelty which ever lies close 
beside selfish passion, her paramour had evidently dragged 
the wretched woman into the open market-place, and sold 
her for the price of an abject slave. But so deep and 
genuine is Hosea’s affection for Gomer that he redeems 
_her from bondage and brings her home again. There he 
keeps her in stern seclusion, taking earnest measures to 
wean her to a better mind, and watching with unabated 
love over the guilty wife of his youth until her affection 
for him should revive. A voice within him said, “ Go, 
love her still, and by firm and tender handling win her 
back to the purity of a chastened, disillusioned, married 
life.’ A touching picture, is it not, of the divine love for 
faithless Israel, which refuses to be defeated, but will seek 
to recover the people, though it be through the loving 
sternness of exilic discipline? Thus Hosea learned to in- 
terpret God’s ways with sinful men in the light of the fall, 
the punishment, and the amendment of a once beautiful 
but faithless wife. Henceforth he comes forward as a 
prophet, speaking with the energy and pathos of one who 
has actually experienced in the narrower circle of the home 
what God for generations past had experienced in the 
wider circle of the house of Israel. Gomer had proved 
unfaithful to Hosea; so, too, had Israel to her divine hus- 
band. But Gomer in a sense was a victom of idolatrous 
practices, appealing to the baser passions ; and so, too, was 
Israel. In either case, however, love, though baffled for a 
time, surmounts all obstacles in reclaiming to virtue the 
prodigal wife. The love of Hosea reminds us of the love 
of that greater Galilean who, in the parable of the prod- 
igal son, as well as in that of the good Samaritan, has 
given us a most wonderful interpretation of God’s love; 
and last, but not least, made visible to our faltering gaze 
the inexhaustible depths of divine love in love incarnate. 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 91 


It would be highly interesting to know something of the 
man Hosea and of the exact course of events leading to his 
prophetic call. As regards the former, all that we know is 
that his home was in the northern kingdom, and that he 
was the son of Beeri. Jewish commentators are of the 
opinion that Hosea was the son of a prophet. But this is 
uncertain. According to several modern interpreters, it is 
not improbable that he was a member of the priesthood. 
This, too, lacks verification. And as to the method of his 
preparation for the prophetic office, we can only point to 
the experiences of his wedded life. But again we look in 
vain for a detailed account of the incidents and events 
leading up to his call. The only incident in his life which 
doubtless had something to do with the content of his 
message, must be inferred from the internal evidence of 
the book itself and from the religious and moral condi- 
tions of the time in which the prophet lived. The experi- 
ences of his wedded life schooled him for his hard task. 
Hosea felt that the Lord designed them to be the provi- 
dential means of enabling him to understand a great re- 
ligious truth, which it was his duty to proclaim with all the 
force and pathos of a terribly mortifying experience. 

It is needless to enter into the endless controversies as to 
whether Hosea’s relation to Gomer was a literary fiction, 
or an ecstatic vision, or a reality, or an act of obedience to 
an immoral command, On general principles the literal 
interpretation of Scripture is to be preferred to the alle- 
gorical method, except where it can be shown that we are 
dealing not with actual facts but with allegory. In our 
humble judgment there is no need for allegory in endeav- 
ouring to explain Hosea’s relation to Gomer. Moreover, 
allegory in this case would not obviate the moral difficulty 
which such an explanation involves. In the ethical con- 
sciousness of God’s people there is no essential difference 
between a fictitious immoral act and an immoral deed en- 


$2 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 

acted in real life. However, all the facts in the case can 
easily be accounted for by adhering to the literal interpre- 
tation of the first three chapters. Hosea, we repeat, mar- 
ried, as the prophet himself says, a wife of harlotry, that 
is to say, a woman with adulterous inclinations and with 
the spirit of harlotry in her heart. She is not called a 
harlot outright. This leads us to think that the young 
bride was not outwardly immoral when the prophet mar- 
ried her. Inwardly, however, like the average woman of 
her day, she was a woman with immoral proclivities en- 
gendered by the sensual rites of the heathen shrines which 
were to be found on every hilltop. Hosea’s love did not 
avail permanently to restrain them. But he forebore with 
her, hoping for amendment. With what result has already 
been explained. In spite of Gomer’s fickleness the old 
love would not die in the prophet’s heart. Finally there 
flashed upon his mind the thought that if he could con- 
tinue to love a wandering wife, how much greater would 
be the love of God for His wayward people! 

Whether or not the prophetic call of Hosea preceded his 
tragic domestic experience is not stated. He may have had 
a faint idea of God’s love before. But we are safe in say- 
ing that it could not have gripped his soul to the same ex- 
tent, if he had not lived through such an experience. The 
heart agony of it all finds expression in the wild cry of 
anguish which can hardly be mastered. His literary style 
is marked by the sobs and sighs of a distracted mourner, 
quivering with emotion. The attempt to reduce the proph- 
et’s married life to pure allegory, with no element of his- 
tory in it, leaves out of account the severe realism of the 
prophet’s words. There is this much realism about it, to 
say the very least, that Gomer’s children were living wit- 
nesses to Hosea’s message. His marriage to Gomer was 
a reality and nota literary fiction. It is inconceivable that 
the prophet should have invented such a tale about his 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 93 


wife. The simple facts are told. There is nothing in- 
credible about Hosea’s domestic experience. Attention 
has already been called to the effect of spiritual adultery 
upon the home life. What had happened to him had hap- 
pened to many of his contemporaries. 

In some respects the call of Hosea is analogous to the 
call of Amos; to each of them there comes the word of 
Jehovah summoning them to the prophetic office. In the 
call of the son of Beeri, as in that of the shepherd of 
Tekoa, we look in vain for any explicit reference to a 
miraculous appearance of Jehovah. If the prophetic im- 
pulse in the case of Hosea antedates his great domestic 
trial, then most certainly the awful experience of an un- 
happy married life helped to clarify and give added force 
to his message. But as there is no mention of a miracu- 
lous voice in the call of Hosea, the prophet may have been 
first awakened to the conviction of having a prophetic mis- 
sion by what transpired in his own home. The prophetic 
call is not confined to the interposition of miraculous 
voices. It may burst upon a man’s religious consciousness 
with all the urgency of a divine call, on the basis of what is 
commonly regarded as a secular experience. A man may 
have had religious convictions before; Hosea probably had 
his, but the climax is reached when Hosea makes the 
shocking discovery that the wife of his youth had been 
false to him. The conviction forced itself on his mind 
that his domestic experience was no mere accident, for it 
taught him to understand, as never before, Israel’s rela- 
tion to God. To us it appears most probable that this was 
“the beginning of Jehovah’s word” to him, and through 
him to Israel, 

What message does Hosea bring to us? The prophet 
tells us that the sin of Israel was the sin of Baalism. In- 
crease in material wealth meant an increase in altars to 
Baal. God’s gifts were turned into human idols and wor- 


94 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


shipped by men who were more zealous in bowing the knee 
to Baal than to God Himself. In modern idolatry God’s 
blessings are abused and converted into the images of 
Baalism. Lust, covetousness, and pleasure allure men’s 
hearts and they set up gold, worldly distinction, and popu- 
lar applause and cry, “These be thy gods.” Men are 
“lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Then, too, 
covetousness is a form of idolatry. Of some it may be 
said, “ Their god is their belly.” Many are engaged in the 
pursuit of pleasure and of material gain. Most of their 
time is spent in greedy indulgence and in inordinate at- 
tachments of every kind. Earthly possessions take the 
place of God. Success in worldly affairs is attributed to 
progressive business methods and industrial habits rather 
than to the Creator of the very things which are of basic 
importance in every business enterprise. Men are blind 
to God’s presence in their daily affairs, owing to a multi- 
tude of trees which ever and anon hide from their eyes the 
Lord of the garden. They can see the foliage of the tree 
nearest to them for the shade thereof is pleasant, and they 
make it their Baal. They cannot see or hear the real 
Owner of the garden, standing in the midst of the gar- 
den and calling out to every son of Adam, “ Where art 
thou?” . 

Strange, very strange, is it not, that material wealth 
should rob so many of our people of their spiritual vision? 
While money, or material wealth in general, is not inher- 
ently bad, the sad fact remains that the increase in wealth 
often results in a corresponding increase in the distance 
between the recipient of such wealth and God who gives 
it; indeed, not infrequently it means an increase in altars 
to Baal. In other words, instead of living consecrated 
Christian.lives and possibly preaching the gospel to a des- 
perately wicked world, many young men are recklessly at 
ease in the contemplation of present blessings, and totally 


THE CALL OF HOSEA 95 


oblivious to the needs of their fellowmen. It is for this 
very reason that so few rich men’s sons find their way into 
the ministry. In general, the rich young ruler the world 
over prefers his possessions to Jesus Christ. There is no 
sense of stewardship. For men to say that they can do 
with their time and their talents and their possessions as 
they please is to perpetuate the spirit of Baalism. God has 
given us all these things that they might be a blessing not 
only to ourselves but also to others. If, in the face of the 
crying evils of our own time, ‘‘ the word of the Lord ” has 
come to you in a somewhat similar way as it did to Amos 
and Hosea, how dare you run after the Baal of your own 
selfish desires and passions? Is it the gold on the golden 
calf that makes you such a zealous devotee of Baal? Ah, 
my friend, what you need is not more altars and more sac- 
rifices to Baal. You need another kind of sacrifice than 
that offered to your self-invented deities. You need a 
vision of the sacrifice of infinite love on Calvary’s hill. 
You need a vision of the deeper meaning of the cross. In 
the contemplation of that sacrifice, learn, with God’s help, 
to sacrifice your own selfish will, your own pride, and 
your own lust: that kind of sacrifice will liberate you from 
your besetting sin, which is eating with alarming rapidity 
into the vitals of your life. 

The iniquities and idolatries of his time weighed heavily 
on Hosea’s heart. Young man, are the social evils and 
vices of present-day society no concern of yours? The 
only remedy for the putrefying sores of our social organ- 
ism is the gospel of God’s redeeming love in Christ Jesus. 
Will you not proclaim that truth to the wayward, idol- 
atrous hearts of men? Will you not preach that gospel to 
a desperately wicked world? We who belong to a faith- 
less generation need to preach this truth constantly to our- 
selves as well as to others. The sins of the flesh are deep- 
seated enough to cause us grave concern. The sin of con- 


96 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


cupiscence is like a thorn in the flesh. Oh for the moral 
purity of Jesus Christ! Oh that the power of the gospel 
would exorcise and cast out of our hearts and lives the 
devil of evil desire! How dare we, with our riotous 
thoughts and our inflamed imagination cast the first stone 
at faithless Gomer? O God, fix our unstable thoughts on 
Thee, so that the germ of our evil volitions may fail of 
fruition! Make and keep us morally pure and clean. 
Transform our hearts by the dynamic of a holy love, and 
may they go out to Thee in undivided love and adoration. 
May life’s sorrows and disappointments, its trials and 
crushing defeats, tugging at the very heartstrings of our 
being, drive us to Thee, and lead our bleeding hearts to 
the discovery of the higher meaning of life, so that we may 
impart the same with the power of an irresistible convic- 
tion to the erring souls of men. To this end may we dedi- 
cate all that we have and are, our temporal and spiritual 
blessings, and consecrate our lives upon the altar of loving 
sacrifice to God and to our fellowmen. 


VI 
THE CALL OF ISAIAH 


IsAIAH 6 


the metropolis of the southern kingdom. According 

to rabbinical tradition he was “ of the house and lin- 
eage of David.’ He had at all times ready access to the 
king and the court, and could appear before them without 
having been previously announced. True, this may partly 
be ascribed to the high prerogatives accorded to the pro- 
phetic office. And yet, we are constrained to note Isaiah’s 
extraordinary literary ability. From the contents of his 
prophecies we infer that he was well educated. Although 
a man of high social standing, his chief ambition in life 
was not to become a great statesman, but a prophetic wit- 
ness to the quiet strength and staying-power that comes 
from faith in the living God. Among the prophets of the 
Old Testament he is pre-eminently the prophet of faith. 
In Amos, as we have seen, Israel’s sin is that it has lost 
sight of the ethical demands of religion; in Hosea, the 
cardinal sin of Israel is disloyalty to a loving God in the 
sphere of religion, politics, and social morality; but in 
Isaiah the root of all evil is unbelief or pride. 

The long reign of Uzziah was in many respects no less 
brilliant than that of Jeroboam II, his contemporary in the 
north. Uzziah fortified Jerusalem and other cities, and 
strengthened the borders of the southern kingdom. He 
organized a powerful standing army, stocked his arsenals 
with munitions of war, including newly invented projectile 


97 


| Resa the prince of the literary prophets, lived in 


98 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


engines, and, by a series of successful military campaigns, 
rendered tributary several of the neighbouring nations. 
For nearly half a century Judah had enjoyed almost un- 
precedented prosperity. But political prosperity did not 
lead to introspection and thankfulness in the southern any 
more than it did in the northern kingdom. On the con- 
trary, it resulted in pride and arrogance, in luxurious liv- 
ing and the decline of true religion. While Uzziah was a 
king of the better sort, he was not altogether immune to 
the presumptuous and irreverent temper of the age. The 
chronicler (II Chron. 16:15 ff.) relates that “his name 
spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he 
was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted 
up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord 
his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn in- 
cense upon the altar of incense.” 

The wilful, but now leprous king, was thrust from the 
temple. Of the people themselves Isaiah says, ‘“‘ They are 
replenished from the east, and are diviners of the clouds 
like the Philistines, and make contracts with foreigners. 
Their land also is full of silver and gold, and there is no 
end to their treasures; their land is full of horses also and 
there is no end to their chariots; nay, their land is full of 
idols; the work of their hands, that which their own fin- 
gers have made, they worship. Therefore shall man be 
humbled and mankind abased; nor show them favour! 
Go into the rock, and hide thyself in the ground, from the 
dreadful presence of Jehovah, and from the splendour of 
His majesty. The lofty eyes of man shall be abased, and 
the haughtiness of men humbled; and Jehovah alone shall 
be exalted in that day ” (2: 6-11). The increase of wealth 
and military strength produced a proud sense of security 
which resulted in materialistic unbelief. Rather than trust 
in the Lord of Hosts the men of Judah, conscious of their 
political successes, put their sole reliance in a_ well- 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 99 


equipped army or in the military support of foreign allies. 
The prophet is opposed to entangling alliances with 
heathen nations because they opened the door to influences 
unfavourable to a pure religion. Foreign alliances and 
commercial contracts with other nations led to the intro- 
duction of divination and idolatry. To seek aid from out- 
side betrayed a woeful lack of faith in Jehovah. This, in 
the eyes of the prophet, is the unpardonable sin, for it isa 
sin unto death. Such open infidelity must be punished. 
Thus we are in a position to understand the anti-military 
policy of Isaiah. God, in His divine majesty, is supreme 
over all. -In spite of everything to the contrary, the 
prophet’s faith remains unshaken, “I will wait for Jeho- 
vah, who hideth His face from the house of Jacob; yea, I 
will wait for Him” (8:17). ‘There can be no substitute 
for the Almighty. When Isaiah began his ministry, Judah 
was entering upon the stormiest period of its history. 
Several years after the death of. Uzziah, Judah was threat- 
ened with invasion (chap. 7). The object of the Syro- 
Ephraimitic war (734 B. c.) was to depose Ahaz, who had 
refused to enter the coalition formed by Rezin of Damas- 
cus and Pekah of Samaria against Assyria. At the ap- 
proach of the confederate kings “ the heart of Ahaz shook, 
and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest shake 
before the wind.’ Not so Isaiah; nothing can shake his 
faith in the God of Israel. The prophet, fearing an alli- 
ance with Assyria, admonishes Ahaz, saying, “ Take heed 
and be quiet, fear not, neither let thy heart be timid on 
account of these two stumps of smoking firebrands.” 
Isaiah assures the king that the rulers of Syria and Israel 
—puny mortals both of them—will not prevail against 
Jehovah, the ultimate King of Judah. And then he adds, 
“If ye have no faith, verily ye shall not be established.” 
The alliterative force of the words used in the Hebrew 
text is variously rendered, “If ye do not confide, verily 


100 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE | 


ye shall not abide—If ye will not have faith, ye shall not 
have staith—If ye hold not fast, verily ye shall not stand 
fast—Verily, if thou have no strong trust, no trusty 
stronghold shall be thine—No faith, no fixity.” Faith in 
the present crisis is the essential thing. The security and 
continuance of the assailed throne and kingdom depends 
entirely upon faith in God. Ahaz must choose between 
faith and unbelief, between Jehovah and Tiglath-Pileser. 
Have faith, Ahaz, and ‘“ God will be with us ” (Imman- 
uel). What Ahaz and his people need is not an alliance 
with Tiglath-Pileser III, but the reliance of an unshakable 
faith in the Almighty. Then Judah will be saved from 
disaster and ruin, not otherwise. 

So, again, in the time of Hezekiah, when the faithless 
politicians of Jerusalem were advocating an alliance with 
Egypt against Assyria, Isaiah urges the people to pursue a 
policy of peace and trust in the God of Zion (28:12), and 
to abandon their disquieting, distracting search for earthly 
aids. “Thus saith Jehovah, Behold I have laid in Zion 
for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner- 
stone of solid foundation: he that hath faith shall not be 
put to shame” (28:16). What is meant by the precious 
corner-stone of solid foundation? Surely the believer is 
not asked to put his trust in the solid rock of the altar of 
burnt sacrifice on Mount Zion, or in any of the founda- 
tion-stones of the Solomonic temple. The prophet cannot 
mean to connect the peace and security of the believer with 
the rocky eminence on which Zion was founded. In an 
earlier chapter (8:14) he speaks of Jehovah as a “ stone 
of stumbling and as a rock of offense” to unbelieving 
Israel in the north and to faithless Judah in the south. 
Elsewhere Jehovah is referred to as “ the Rock of Israel ” 
(30:29). The same title for the God of Israel occurs in 
Deuteronomy 32:3, 4; and in II Samuel 23:3, Jehovah, 
then, must be the object of faith in the passage under con- 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 101 


sideration. To the man of faith, He is a sure support, a 
mighty fortress, affording tranquil security in the hour of 
danger. Let the politicians of Jerusalem boast of their 
secret alliance with Egypt against Assyria. With all their 
self-confidence and political intriguing they will soon come 
to grief. Anything short of religious faith, of absolute 
confidence in the solidity of the foundation already laid in 
Zion will not avail. 

The political structure which they have reared on the 
quicksands of a faithless diplomacy will come to sudden 
ruin at the approach of the Assyrian cyclone. When that 
day comes the foundation-stone in Zion will remain inde- 
structible. There is only one ground of confidence, only 
one foundation, upon which to build, and that is the Rock 
of Israel, the one eternal God, whose quiet presence, like a 
precious corner-stone of solid foundation, gives durability 
and permanence to the structure which is to be erected. 
Israel’s unchangeable and ever-faithful God desires to be- 
come the corner-stone of the national life, of its religion, 
politics, and social economy. He is the chief corner-stone 
of solid foundation, upon which the Hebrew theocracy 
was built, all the links, except the last, in the chain of the 
Davidic dynasty being like so many bricks in the superim- 
posed walls. Isaiah and other prophets, however, inform 
us that the temple of the theocratic kingdom was not 
brought to its full completion. Indeed, Israel as a nation 
preferred to build on other foundations, and hence the 
prophet’s message of impending national doom. But the 
faithful remnant kept on building until Jehovah, in the 
fulness of time, manifested Himself in the flesh. It was 
then that Christ became the chief corner-stone of the spiri- 
tual temple, the church. He is called “a living stone, disal- 
lowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, to 
whom coming, ye also, as living stones, be ye built up a 
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual 


102 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, Wherefore 
also it is contained in Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a 
chief corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth 
on Him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore who 
believe He is precious, but unto them that are disobedient, 
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is become 
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock 
of offense, even to them that stumble at the word, being 
disobedient ” (I Pet. 2:4-8. Compare Eph. 2: 20-22). 

This living stone will try men’s hearts and test their 
faith. Many will be offended in Him, while others who 
believe in Him will not be confounded. ‘“‘ This child,” 
aged Simeon declares, “is set for the fall and rising again 
of many in Israel” (Lk. 2:34). Even John the Baptist 
is, for a time at least, not altogether sure of himself 
(Matt. 11:2-6). To His faithful followers, He is the 
precious corner-stone of all their plans and hopes both for 
this world and the next, but “a stone of stumbling ” to the 
unbelievers. Jesus warns the ecclesiastical master-builders 
of His day of the consequences of rejecting His messianic 
claims by applying to Himself the words of the twenty- 
second verse of Psalm 118. “And he beheld them and 
said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the cor- 
ner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be 
broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him 
to powder” (Lk. 20: 17-18; Matt. 21:42, 44). As the 
true representative of Israel, Christ undertakes to fulfil 
the mission in which Israel had failed. 

In the light of these considerations it is perfectly obvi- 
ous as to what is meant by “a precious corner-stone of 
solid foundation.” ‘The reference, as we have seen, is to 
Jehovah. He alone can be the object of the believer’s 
faith. So, too, in the New Testament, where the apostle 
Paul re-echoes the thought of Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16, the 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 103 


object of faith is Jehovah incarnate, or Christ. the Mes- 
siah (Rom. 9:33). This interpretation agrees also with 
that of the apostle Peter in I Peter 2: 4-8, already quoted. 
The latter, in commenting on Psalm 118: 22, explicitly 
states in the presence of Annas the high priest and other 
members of the Jewish Sanhedrin that Jesus Christ, “ the 
stone which was set at nought of you builders is become 
the head of the corner” (Acts 4:10, 11). He is the 
precious corner-stone of solid foundation, upon which the 
long-heralded Messiah will build the walls of Zion. ‘“ For 
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 3:11). He is the “ living stone ” 
(I Pet. 2:4), the “spiritual Rock” (I Cor. 10:4) upon 
which the Church is built. If the writer of Isaiah 28: 16 
represents, under the figure of a well-laid foundation- 
stone, the quiet presence of Jehovah in Jerusalem as the 
only ground of trustful confidence that avails in the im- 
pending crisis, it would be the height of folly, it seems to 
me, to assume that Jehovah incarnate would be willing to 
found a purely spiritual theocracy upon anything less than 
the foundation already laid from the beginning of the 
world, | | 

The context of the much-disputed passage in Matthew 
16:18 shows that Jesus did not wish to imply that He 
would found His Church upon the man Peter, but upon 
the rocklike certitude, expressed by Him, in His Messiah- 
ship. The point in the question of Jesus, “ Who say ye 
that I am?” was to sound the depths of the disciples’ 
faith in the Son of man. Quick as a flash Simon Peter, 
the ready spokesman of the Twelve, answered the one 
great, fundamental question of their lives by saying, 
“ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” What- 
ever may be the opinion of the people concerning the 
Prophet of Galilee, mighty in word and deed, it is the un- 
mistakable conviction of Peter that Jesus is the Messiah. 


104 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


“ Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,” for the spiritual in- 
sight of a growing faith. Delighted with his confession of 
faith, Jesus says, “ Thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this 
rock (petra) I will build My Church; and the gates of 
Hades shall not prevail against it.” The confession of 
Jesus as the Messiah is the rock (petros), and not the man 
Peter (Petros), upon which the Church is built. That 
Church is indestructible, not because it is founded on 
Peter or his successors, who come and go, who live and 
die; the powers of the world shall not prevail against a 
rock-like, a living, and dynamic faith in the Son of God. 
Such a faith is not the exclusive possession of any one 
man in the apostolic circle. It may be yours; it may be 
mine, for Christ is always building His Church upon rock- 
like faith. 

The apostles and the disciples of all ages are only the 
upper rocky layer, the upper stratum, as it were, of the 
substratum of faith. The solid bed-rock of divine truth 
as it is in Jesus constitutes the mighty foundation-stone, 
“the Rock of Ages,” upon which rock-like witnesses may 
rear the superstructure. In the concluding verse of the 
passage Jesus charges the disciples, including Peter, not 
to tell anyone as yet “that He was the Christ.” While 
they had found the right foundation, upon which to build, 
the time was not fully ripe as yet for the proclamation of 
the glad tidings. Meanwhile they must retire for a season 
and be with Jesus. Evidently, then, the central idea of 
the whole passage gathers around the fundamental confes- 
sion of Jesus as the Messiah, and not around the person 
of Simon Peter. The man who shows the firmness of a 
rock in making that confession may be called Satan the 
very moment that he begins to rebuke the Master, saying, 
“Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto 
Thee. But He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee be- 
hind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me, for 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 105 


thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of 
men ” (16: 22-23). 

But to return to the faithless politicians of Isaiah’s day 
and their secret agreement with Egypt. The prophet ex- 
poses the hollowness of their fancied security in the re- 
sources of Egyptian military power, which can never take 
the place of a tranquil reliance upon the Lord’s protection, 
Their only hope lies in a complete reversal of their military 
policy and in a return to the Holy One of Israel. “In re- 
turning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and, in 
confidence shall be your strength, but ye have refused ; and 
ye have said, Upon horses will we flee; wherefore ye shall 
flee; and upon the swift will we ride; wherefore swift 
shall be those that pursue you” (30:15-16). Irreligious 
confidence in material power lay at the root of the political 
evils of the day. “ Woe unto them that go down to Egypt 
for help and rely upon horses; and trust in chariots be- 
cause they are many, and in horsemen, because they are 
very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Is- 
rael, and Jehovah they do not seek... . But the Egyp- 
tians are men and not God; and their horses are flesh and 
not spirit; and when Jehovah stretcheth forth His hand, 
both helper and holpen shall stumble and fall, and they 
shall all perish together ” (31:1, 3). According to Isaiah 
the really dominating forces in history are spiritual, not 
material; divine, not human. A spiritual religion cannot 
come to its highest expression by becoming an integral 
part of unspiritual political methods, otherwise it will lose 
its supremacy and partake of the limitations and weak- 
nesses of an ephemeral political policy. 

In the very nature of things military resources, native 
or foreign, can never be a substitute for God, since they 
partake of the weaknesses of all flesh; they are flesh, 
whereas He is spirit, whose perfection is not conditioned 
by change or decay. What a striking contrast between the 


106 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


divine calm of God on Mount Zion and the feverish activ- 
ity of scheming politicians and foreign embassies coming 
to Jerusalem for the purpose of forming coalitions against 
Assyria! ‘“ For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be 
still, and I will look on in My dwelling place, like clear 
heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of har- 
vest” (18:4). The great need of the hour is faith in 
God and Jerusalem will be safe. Jehovah is calmly await- 
ing the issue. Should Assyria act in defiance of God’s 
will, Jehovah will interpose in behalf of His people and 
save them from an arrogant foe. And this is what actu- 
ally happened, when Jerusalem was invested by the arro- 
gant forces of Sennacherib. Jerusalem is saved by an act 
of divine interposition. Isaiah’s faith in the inviolability 
of Jerusalem required a courageous faith in the God of his- 
tory. It is such a faith as this that will abide the shock of 
changing circumstances. In the midst of earth’s turmoil 
and national and international pettiness and unbelief it is 
the duty of the man of Judah, and of every believer in fact, 
to obey the divine will and to put himself on the God-ward 
side of the historical process. Whatever course may be 
pursued by unbelieving individuals and national groups, he 
must have faith in God, who, at the proper time, will come 
to his rescue and help him out of all his troubles. A con- 
trary course will only end in political confusion and chaos. 

Foreign alliances, moreover, are a positive menace to the 
perpetuity of Israel’s religion. By deciding to throw in 
his lot with Assyria, Ahaz has really decided against 
Jehovah. An alliance with the Assyrian was followed, as 
stated above, by the importation of the magical arts. and 
the heathen worship of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. 
Whether or not the alliance with Egypt, referred to in 
chapter 30, was fraught with equal danger to the religion 
of the southern kingdom we do not know. At any rate 
this defensive league is interpreted by the prophet as an 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 107 


unmistakable sign of religious apostasy, consisting in the 
virtual denial of God’s power to help and save His people. 
One might think that Jehovah were impotent and that He 
had abdicated His throne! ‘“ Woe to the rebellious chil- 
dren, saith Jehovah, carrying out a policy which is not 
from Me, and weaving a web without My spirit, that they 
may heap sin upon sin; who set forth to go down to Egypt 
and have not inquired at My mouth, to seek the protection 
of Pharaoh and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt. 
But Pharaoh’s protection shall be unto you for shame, and 
the refuge in the shadow of Egypt for confusion!” 
(30: 1-3). However, the religious eclecticism incidental 
to political compacts with heathen nations only aggravated 
the tendency of the Hebrews to stray after false divinities. 
The existence of high places throughout the greater part 
of Israel’s history was largely responsible for this. To 
abolish them was no easy task, as they were part and par- 
cel of the popular religion. Even kings of the better sort, 
such as Uzziah and Jotham, did not remove them, “ the 
people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high 
places” (II Kings 15:4, 35). 

The inclination to idolatry was fostered by the presence 
of these shrines as well as by the importation of heathen 
superstitions from the empires along the Tigris and the 
Nile. If the gods of the nations were satisfied with formal 
rites and material offerings, would it not be possible to 
regain Jehovah’s favour by more ample sacrifices and 
greater ceremonial zeal? At the central sanctuary in Je- 
rusalem, where Jehovah was assiduously worshipped by a 
host of unspiritual ritualists, formal rites and ceremonies 
co-existed side by side with religious, moral, and social 
corruption. “ They draw near unto Me with their lips 
but their heart is far from Me. ... Of what use is the 
multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith Jehovah; I am 
satiated with the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of 


108 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


fed beasts, and in the blood of bullocks and lambs and he- 
goats I take no delight. When ye come to appear before 
Me, who hath required of you this trampling of My 
courts? Bring no more worthless meal-offerings ; incense 
is an abomination unto Me; the new-moon and the sab- 
bath, the calling of a convocation—I cannot bear wicked- 
ness and a solemn assembly. Your new-moon festivals 
and your stated religious festivals My soul hateth; they 
are a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. Yea, 
when ye spread forth the palms of your hands, I will hide 
Mine eyes from you; and although ye multiply prayers, I 
will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash your- 
selves, cleanse yourselves; put away the evil of your 
doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn 
to do good; seek justice, correct the wrong of the op- 
pressed ; do justice to the orphan, plead for the widow ” 
(29 13 cdi: O-L7)). 

As in the practically contemporaneous period of Amos 
and Hosea, strictness in ritual was combined with moral 
laxity. Indeed, the passage just cited, is a forceful re- 
minder of Amos 5:21-24. In both Amos and Isaiah the 
tendency to divorce morality from religion is equally 
marked. ‘The underlying cause of the prevailing moral 
and spiritual deterioration must be sought in the nation’s 
idolatry, which threatened the supremacy of Jehovah. 
But the time will come when these no-gods, or non-entities 
will be cast aside as worthless by the image worshippers 
themselves. On that day the disappointed worshipper will 
“cast his no-gods of silver and his no-gods of gold, which 
were made for him to worship, to the moles and to the 
bats” (2:20). 

The moral condition of Judah at this period is not unlike 
that of Israel in the time of Amos. There is the same 
avarice and greed of the rich landowners. Poor farmers, 
unable to meet their obligations with the promptness de- 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 109 


manded of them, are ejected from their ancestral holdings 
under the cruel sanctions of Canaanitish law, which was 
fundamentally opposed to the democratic spirit of Hebrew 
legislation. “‘ Woe unto them that join house to house, 
that annex field to field, until there is no more room, and 
ye are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land!” 
(5:8). The leaders of society are “companions of 
thieves” (1:23). “It is ye that have eaten up the vine- 
yard ; the plunder of the afflicted is in your houses. What 
mean ye that ye crush My people, and grind the face of 
the poor? saith the Lord. . . . Jehovah of Hosts hoped for 
justice, but behold bloodshed, for righteousness, but be- 
hold an outcry!” (3:14, 15; 5:7). The corrupt priest- 
hood of the day is denounced with all the vehemence of an 
Amos. False prophets experience no scruples in pervert- 
ing the gift of prophetic utterance to suit the passing 
whims of a corrupt age; they prophesy smooth things and 
the people love to have it so. Drunkenness prevails, 
“ Priest and prophet reel with strong drink. . . . Woe to 
them that rise up early to follow strong drink, and tarry 
in the evening, the wine inflaming them” (28:7; 5:11). 

Characteristic of the prevalent corruption is the motto, 
“Let us eat and drink, for t8morrow we shall die.” The 
castigation of the kine of Bashan, who have sunk to the 
level of mere animalism (Amos 4:1 ff.), has its counter- 
part in Isaiah’s sarcastic inventory of ornaments and for- 
eign attire worn by the fashionable ladies of the Judean 
capital. “And Jehovah said, Because the daughters of 
Zion are haughty, and go with outstretched necks and 
blinking eyes, tripping along as they go and making a 
tinkling with their feet: therefore Jehovah will smite with 
a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion. In 
that day Jehovah will take away the finery of the anklets, 
the sunlets and moonlets; the ear-drops and the bracelets 
and the fine veils ; the diadems and the stepping-chains and 


110 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the girdles and the smelling-bottles and the amulets; the 
seal-rings and the nose-rings; the state-dresses and the 
tunics and the shawls and the purses; the hand mirrors 
and the fine linen and the turbans and the large veils. And 
it shall come to pass that instead of perfume there shall 
be rottenness, and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead 
of artificial curls, baldness; and instead of a mantle, a 
girding of sackcloth, a brand instead of beauty” (3: 16- 
24). Beneath this outer finery there is the inward pride 
of a corrupt heart. Arrogance of every sort is distasteful 
to Jehovah. “For Jehovah of Hosts hath a day for all 
that is proud and lofty. The haughty eyes of the earth- 
born shall be brought low, and the highness of men 
bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that 
dave 1 Tiwi ye | | 

The conditions just described throw considerable light 
on important aspects of Isaiah’s inaugural vision in the 
temple. Chapter 6 begins with the words, “In the year 
that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a high 
and exalted throne.”” Coming to the throne when a lad of 
sixteen, Uzziah, as we have seen, soon developed into a 
successful warrior and administrator. For fifty-two years 
great prosperity had prevailed. But unfortunately ma- 
terial wealth and splendor, as so frequently, gave birth to 
a haughty spirit and a self-sufficient pride. Although out- 
wardly a zealous worshipper of Jehovah, Uzziah shared 
the irreligious arrogance and irreverent temper of an age 
inflated with the careless optimism of material prosperity 
and earthly success. Having reached the zenith of his 
power, the proud king, arrayed in all his splendour, went 
into the temple, and attempted with his own hands to burn 
incense on the altar. But suddenly the haughty monarch, 
enraged at the opposition of the priesthood, is smitten with 
leprosy. He now retires to a lazar-house, there to spend 
the rest of his days. In the year 740 B. c., or thereabouts, 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 111 


Judah’s sovereign dies and sinks into a leper’s grave, thus 
terminating the glorious reign of a once powerful ruler. 
One day, in the year of Uzziah’s death, the youth Isaiah 
wended his way, as he had done many times before, to the 
temple, greatly perplexed perhaps by recent events. That 
day he had a most remarkable experience. In fact, it was 
the cardinal experience in the life of a youthful patriot, 
by which a Judean citizen was converted into the greatest 
prophet of Old Testament times. 

That day he had a vision of the invisible and eternal, of 
the unchanging and abiding realities behind and beyond 
the changing scenes of life. While worshipping in the 
court of the men of Israel, he saw, not Uzziah, nor any of 
the princes of this world who come and go, who live and 
die ; he beheld the sovereign Ruler of all the universe, the 
true King of men, sitting upon a lofty throne, and exalted 
above time and eternity. The veil of the outer temple is 
drawn aside, as it were, and there is revealed to the rev- 
erent worshipper Israel’s King in all His majesty seated 
upon a throne high and lifted up above all earthly thrones, 
“and His train filled the temple.” With reverential self- 
restraint the prophet does not attempt to describe the in- 
describable nor to put into words that which is ineffable. 
Mention is made of the flowing, billowy folds of the royal 
mantle and of the seraphic attendants about the throne, 
who constituted His retinue. Jehovah Himself is not de- 
scribed, nor are the winged messengers themselves except 
to indicate that they veiled their faces and their feet before 
the adorable presence of the Holy One of Israel. Two 
of the six wings of each seraph were held in perfect 
readiness for swift obedience to the divine mandate. At 
Jehovah’s right and left (I Kings 22:19) the seraphim, 
arranged in two rows, presently lifted up their voices, 
singing unceasingly, like the chanting temple choirs of 
priests and Levites, their antiphonal hymn of praise in 


112 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


honour of a thrice holy God, “ Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah 
of Hosts; the fulness of the whole earth is His glory.” 
The voices blend and swell into the sublime and powerful 
strains of the Thrice-Holy, and the reverberating sound 
seems to shake the foundations of the threshold, and “ the 
house is filled with smoke,” as at other times when God 
descended to communicate with men (Ex. 40: 34; I Kings 
8:10, 11; Ezek. 10:4). Hiding themselves with their 
wings from the glory of the divine presence, the seraphim 
give expression to the intense holiness of Jehovah in con- 
trast with the low moral standards of an irreverent age. 
What Isaiah’s contemporaries needed was a sense of re- 
ligious awe and reverential trust in the sovereign power of 
God, whom they were dishonouring by their irreligious 
materialism. Want of reverence and humility in religion 
usually degenerates into the heartlessness of Pharisaic 
self-aggrandizement. Through a presumptuous act, Uz- 
ziah learns by bitter experience that the God of Israel is 
infinitely holy, and not like the man-made gods of Israel’s 
neighbours. Jehovah is God and not man, divine, not 
human, and absolutely transcendent above all flesh. What 
folly, therefore, for a nation to put its trust in military 
resources and in the purchased protection of earthly 
potentates ! 

Israel needs to learn that Jehovah is the God of all the 
earth. As compared with Jehovah of Hosts neither for- 
eign gods nor political compacts with external powers will 
avail, The Lord of the hosts of heaven and earth has a 
rightful claim to the undivided allegiance of the armies of 
Israel and of all the sons of men. But Israel, by virtue of 
a divided heart and a divided allegiance, has lost the divine 
favour, which cannot be regained by a multitude of sacri- 
fices, for “the fulness of the whole earth is His glory.” 
In the case of Israel, God’s glory is seen in a series of 
gracious historical acts. (Num. 14:21 ff.; Isa. 5:16.) 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 113 


His glory may also be seen in the material world, in the 
works of nature and of grace. But, alas, Israel, blinded 
by materialistic pride, is no longer conscious of Jehovah's 
majesty and glory. In the opening verses of the first 
chapter of Isaiah, the prophet exclaims, “ Hear, O heav- 
ens, and give ear, O earth, for Jehovah hath spoken, I 
have nourished and brought up children, and they have 
rebelled against Me. The ox knoweth his owner and the 
ass his master’s crib: Israel doth not know, My people 
doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, people laden with 
guilt, seed of evildoers! wayward children! They have 
forsaken Jehovah, they have rejected Israel’s Holy One” 
(1:2-4). The sin of Israel is pride and insensibility to 
the moral perfection of Israel’s Holy One, who is a holy 
fire, consuming all that is unclean. Conscious of his im- 
plication in the nation’s sin and guilt, the awe-struck wor- 
shipper in the temple experiences for the first time in his 
life an overpowering sense of sin. The sin of Isaiah is not 
more heinous than that of his countrymen ; indeed, he may 
not have been as wicked as the reckless sinners in Judah. 
But it matters not. Whatever virtues he may possess, 
whatever of light there may be within his soul, all is 
eclipsed and turned into darkness in a glory so ineffable 
and in a holiness so intense and infinite. He does not 
measure his life by the low standards of his co-religionists. 
He has had a vision of the transcendent Holy One of Is- 
rael and that was enough to convince him of his own 
sinfulness. 

Born and reared in a sinful environment, he feels his 
solidarity with the sinful nation of which he is a part. In 
the all-searching light of God’s moral perfection, there can 
be no self-excusing. Thank God, Isaiah is not the kind of 
man who refuses to face the facts. He is keenly aware of 
the awfulness of it all and there leaps from his lips the 
agonizing cry, “ Woe is me! for ] am undone; because I 


114 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the 
King, Jehovah of Hosts.” The sin of his unprophetic lips 
is uppermost in Isaiah’s mind, because he had just been 
listening to the seraphic hymn of adoring praise sung by 
the pure lips of sinless beings. Neither he nor his people 
dare mingle their polluted praise with the antiphonal wor- 
ship of that pure, sinless host. His unclean lips disqualify 
him from participation in a service so sublime; he must 
remain dumb and praiseless while the adoring hosts lift up 
the strains of that august anthem which has furnished a 
worthy theme for the adoring hosts of Christendom. Oh, 
the agony of that disability which the prophet must have 
felt! But the confession of his sin is followed by an act 
of forgiving mercy. One of Jehovah’s attendants flew to 
the altar and, taking up the tongs, seized with them a 
glowing stone from the never-extinguished fire of the altar 
of incense, “and he caused it to touch my mouth and said, 
Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken 
away, and thy sin is forgiven.” His sin forgiven, the 
youth Isaiah is seized with a loving impulse to enter 
Jehovah’s service. Needing a qualified messenger to bear 
a much-needed message to His people, the King, inviting 
voluntary and ungrudging service, now asks the question, 
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” To this 
question the young volunteer, without inquiring into the 
nature of his mission, eagerly responds, “ Here am I; 
send me.” . 

The content of the message itself rests with God. It 
cannot destroy the resolute self-surrender of a thoroughly 
consecrated life; no, not even in the face of a crushing 
task. Isaiah had seen God, and his sinful self, had con- 
fessed his sin and experienced the inexpressible joy of 
divine forgiveness. The man for whom God had done so 
much is now ready for the unconditional service of a 
whole-hearted consecration. His spontaneous offer is 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 115 


accepted by the startling announcement that his message, 
instead of leading to the conversion and salvation of the 
people of Israel and Judah, would but harden their hearts 
and render them insensible to the prophet’s appeals. “Go 
and say to this people, Hear on but understand not, and 
see without ceasing but perceive not. Make impervious 
the heart of this people, and make dull its ears, and seal up 
its eyes, lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its ears, and 
its heart understand, and it turn again and be healed.” 
Failure to profit by repeated opportunities of learning 
God’s will, whether by prophetic word or providential 
means, is exceedingly dangerous. By the law of progres- 
sion an attitude of indifference or defiance, once assumed, 
brings its own penalty. It becomes increasingly improb- 
able that the old sinful course will be abandoned. The 
message that fails of its intended purpose always has a 
hardening effect upon men’s hearts. By rejecting such a 
message the hardened sinner virtually pronounces his own 
doom, for while the Word of God saves, it also condemns. 

No Israelite can withdraw himself from the influence 
of the prophetic message without altering his moral and 
religious status. So far as man is concerned the obduracy 
is self-caused, God only continuing the process begun and 
continued by human guilt. There is a progressiveness 
about sin which is always accompanied by an increasing 
incapacity to abandon it, Although the repetition of the 
message will only tend to increase the obduracy of the 
people, Isaiah must continue to plead with them and hope 
against hope. That the nation as a whole will not heed 
the admonitions given is quite clear to the prophet from 
the very beginning of his ministry. Nevertheless, he must 
devote himself to ‘his divinely appointed task with increas- 
ing zeal, and make known to them what he has seen and 
heard in the hope that individuals with receptive hearts 
may still be reached. Filled with compassion for his 


116 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


brethren in the flesh, the prophet anxiously inquires, 
“How long, O Lord,” will they persist in their sinful 
course? The answer comes that, as soon as the existing 
evil tendencies have worked themselves out, a consecrated 
and purified remnant of the people would survive the fiery 
trials of Assyrian invasion, deportation, and exile. In 
other words, the national tree will be cut down, but the 
hidden root will remain, to which the prophet may look 
for the vigorous growth of a more consecrated national 
life. “ And he said, Until cities fall into ruin and be left 
without an inhabitant, and houses without an occupant, 
and the land become utterly desolate, and Jehovah have 
deported the population, and great be the emptiness in the 
midst of the land; and if there be left a tenth therein, 
that shall again be for the fire. Like the terebinth and like 
the oak, whose stock when they are felled remaineth in 
them, so the consecrated descendants shall be the stock 
thereof.” 

In the light of that overpowering vision, Isaiah has no 
other choice but to announce the coming doom. What he 
has seen and heard corresponds in all essentials with the 
message which he is to deliver. He has seen the King in 
the glorious majesty of His infinite holiness, and he be- 
comes at once the unrelenting foe of materialism in re- 
ligion, politics, and every other department of life. He 
pronounces a woe upon the callous heartlessness of all lip- 
worship, upon projected alliances with external powers, 
and upon the confused moral standards of the time 
(5:20). The scoffing unbelief of scornful sceptics, ridi- 
culing the very idea of divine retribution, and hurling a 
defiant challenge into the face of the Almighty, is an illus- 
tration of the hardening effect of irreligious self-suffi- 
ciency (5:18, 19; 29:15). The defiant independence of 
material wealth seemed to proclaim that they had no 
further need of God. The needs of the hour are inter- 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 117 


preted in terms of economics. Everybody has his price, 
from the revelling priests and prophets down to the mer- 
cenary armies of foreign potentates. Money is the great 
solvent, a never-failing antidote for every ill. In time of 
danger from without recourse must be had, of course, not 
to the Jehowah of a bygone age, but to their own means or 
to the purchased protection of foreign armies. 

Once again we are confronted with the prosaic fact that 
outward, prosperity is often a stimulus to the growth of 
materialism. Instead of leading men to God, earthly suc- 
cess only too often acts as a check upon the growth of a 
religious consciousness. Thus it frequently happens that 
outward prosperity and inward piety are, for all practical 
purposes at least, contradictory terms. Why is our 
prophet entrusted with a message of doom? Because a 
highly favoured nation had sunk to the dead level of 
gross materialism, and thereby lost its faith in the deeper 
realities of life. A proud reliance in the abundance of its 
wealth and the strength of its armaments meant an im- 
poverished and weakened faith. The pervading sins of 
greed and self-indulgence, of pride, arrogance, and self- 
willed apostasy blinded their spiritual vision and deadened 
their religious sensibilities. The sins of the time may all 
be resolved into a want of faith. Whatever may be the 
outcome of his ministry in the midst of an unbelieving and 
faithless generation, Isaiah must proclaim the full import 
of his inaugural vision. Though spiritually dead, both 
Israel and Judah must be brought face to face with a 
righteous God, with the King of men, seated upon the 
glorious throne of His transcendent holiness, and highly 
exalted above the follies and sins of men. When Isaiah 
saw the King in the temple, he was convinced of sin in 
order that he might convince of sin the reckless sinners of 
Israel and Judah. Will they hearken to his message and 
repent, or harden their hearts as in the great provocation 


118 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in the wilderness? O Israel, repent and live! If God has 
forgiven the sins of a man of unclean lips, will He not 
forgive others whose lips are unclean? O what a terrible 
thing it is to be indifferent to the call of repentance! In- 
different Israel, and later indifferent Judah, blinded by the 
deadening effect of unbelief, took the fatal plunge pre- 
dicted by the prophet. 

We have gone rather carefully into the details of 
Isaiah’s inaugural vision because every line of it speaks 
with such telling force to the young men of today. Essen- 
tial to a call to the ministry is a vision of God, of our sin- 
ful self, and of our obligations to God and man. 

Observe, in the first place, that at the commencement of 
his prophetic career Isaiah had a vision of God. That 
vision converted him into the great evangelical prophet of 
the Old Testament. He saw God, and that explains why 
he became a prophet. It makes all the difference in the 
world whether a man sees God or looks with steadfast 
and blear-eyed avarice at earthly things. The upward 
gaze elevates character, the downward look blinds our 
spiritual vision and lowers us to the level of a soul-less 
animalism. Whether a man soars to the spiritual heights 
of vision or creeps upon the earth, is determined by his 
seeing. The course of history is shaped by men who look 
in a God-ward direction. Moses, Isaiah, Saul of Tarsus, 
and other immortals had a vision of the spiritual, and 
their mighty deeds thrilled a world groping in spiritual 
darkness. Whatever may have been their peculiar qualifi- 
cations for the work which they were called to do, this 
vision of the spiritual was the most indispensable part of 
their equipment. Physical and mental qualifications must 
be subjected to the vitalizing process of a great religious 
experience. Isaiah’s writings as a whole justify the asser- 
tion that he was one of the best educated Hebrews in the 
latter half of the eighth century before our era. For liter- 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 119 


ary merit he has found no successful rival in prophetic 
literature. But what is literary merit when compared with 
the vision of a man of religious faith? The transfiguring 
touch of a great religious experience has given perma- 
nence to what otherwise might have perished. To be 
complete, a man’s education must always be supplemented 
by a vision of God. While it is true that the ministry 1s 
losing much of its prestige because many of the best edu- 
cated young men in the colleges of our land are not enter- 
ing the ministry as they should, the fact remains that a 
man may pass through the ordinary routine of college, and 
even of seminary life, and yet lack the prophetic gift. 

The prime qualification of a prophetic preacher is that 
he be a religious man himself. Before he begins to inter- 
pret the religious experiences of others he should first pass 
through a similar experience himself. A purely historical 
religion leaves men cold. An intellectual grasp of the 
facts of divine revelation will not suffice. What the 
Church needs is not sounding brass or tinkling cymbals, 
but men who have seen some aspect of the divine and the 
eternal, and then men, realizing that “we do speak the 
things that we have seen and heard,” will cry out, “ What 
shall we do to be saved?” Before we can interpret God 
to others, we must see and know Him. ‘Then we can tell 
others what we have seen, and on the basis of such an 
experience, teach with convincing power the objective 
facts of divine revelation. 

What was it Isaiah saw that day? Although he gives 
no description of Jehovah, the prophet tells us that he saw 
the Lord, the true King of men. He speaks of the glorious 
majesty of a personal Being and not of an impersonal 
power or blind fate. Seated on the throne of the universe 
is Jehovah of Hosts, ruling over the destinies of men, and 
not the self-executing laws of nature or the evolutionary 
principle of natural science. Does it ever occur to our 


120 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


modern sages that the theory of evolution is.at best nothing 
more than a working hypothesis in a realm which deals 
with physical and not with spiritual phenomena? The 
scientist who forgets that “God is spirit and not flesh ” 
will never discover anything else in the universe but mat- 
ter itself. If he is a wise man he will confine himself to 
his own realm, and not attempt to sound out the hidden 
depths of the spiritual world with the aid of the geolo- 
gist’s hammer or the testing-tube of the chemical labora- 
tory. When he confines himself to that which is physical 
and material, concrete and tangible, we cannot but listen 
to him with respect. But as soon as he oversteps these 
bounds and says, “There is no God,” then we are re- 
minded of the words of the psalmist, when he says, “ The 
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” For a vision 
of the spiritual, more is needed than a microscope, more 
even than a telescopic instrument by which we may get a 
glimpse of the planets and stars nearest to us. Unless he 
be a spiritual man himself, the scientist, with all his philo- 
sophical speculations, will never get beyond the conclu- 
sions of pure reason (Kant) or the dictum of agnosticism 
(Spencer). In the realm of the spirit, the inner eye or the 
eye of faith, is the categorical imperative. Faith is an in- 
dispensable prerequisite to a vision of God. The young 
man of today must choose between these modern sages, 
who know so much of the visible world but so little of the 
world invisible, and men like Moses and Isaiah, Peter and 
Paul, who, by a vision of things unseen and eternal, have 
liberated the souls of untold myriads from the shackles of 
materialistic unbelief. 

Such a vision may come to a man at almost any time. 
To Isaiah it came in the year of Uzziah’s death. The som- 
bre aspects of life are often full of spiritual meaning to 
the man who has eyes to see. Not infrequently they fur- 
nish the occasion for momentous life decisions. Isaiah 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 121 


dates his prophetic call from the year of Uzziah’s death. 
The definiteness of the prophet’s memory may be some- 
what disconcerting to those who look upon the time- 
element in the call to a prophetic ministry as an unmis- 
takable token of its genuineness. To most of us, however, 
the call comes, not suddenly but gradually amid the slow 
processes of a ripening Christian experience. No two 
men are called to the ministry in precisely the same way. 
Some are called in childhood, others in early youth, and 
still others in manhood. 

But the call of God may come not only at sundry times 
but also in sundry places. Isaiah’s inaugural vision took 
place on familiar ground. The framework of his wonder- 
ful vision is furnished by the temple. As a youth he had 
often stood among the worshipping multitudes on the 
temple area, with its officiating priesthood and sacrificial 
ritual, But now, not very far from the spot where Uzziah 
had been punished for his irreverence, the familiar sights 
and sounds of the temple ritual suddenly give place to the 
reality hidden behind them. Like Samuel and Isaiah of 
old, we, too, may have a vision of the spiritual in God’s 
appointed house, if only our worship be sincere and free 
from the taint of a heartless lip-worship. Under proper 
conditions the house of God may be converted into the 
very gate of heaven itself. God pity the man whose 
church-going ends in worldliness or in the self-righteous- 
ness of the ancient or modern Pharisee. 

In the second place, it is well to remember that a believ-: 
ing sight of God’s glorious majesty and holiness must 
always be accompanied by a vision of ourselves in the 
light of God’s moral perfection. Isaiah did not assume 
that he was better than the average Israelite. He did not 
attempt to wear the filthy rags of human work righteous- 
ness. He was no Pharisee; neither was he a medieval 
monk. No man can see God aright without feeling his 


122 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


own sinfulness and his oneness with a sinful race. He is 
conscious of his own sinful nature as well as of the uni- 
versality of sin. But once recognizing that truth, he im- 
mediately confesses his sin and is forgiven. Like Isaiah, 
we, too, must confess our sins and God Himself will 
touch our unprophetic lips with the baptismal fire of the 
Holy Ghost (Matt. 3:11). 

Doubtless many of you have been thinking, -Oh, if it 
were only possible for me to have a supernatural vision of 
things unseen, then I, too,. might hope to become an Isaiah. 
Brethren, let me remind you of the comforting fact that 
the eternal world which lies beyond the reach of our mor- 
tal eyes still opens to the touch of faith. St. John, in his 
twelfth chapter, tells us that Israel’s prophet of faith 
beheld Christ Himself: “He saw His glory,” he says, 
“and spake of Him” (12:41). You, too, may see Jeho- 
vah incarnate with the eye of faith. “ Believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Isaiah’s vision, 
then, resolves itself into the question, Have you by faith 
beheld Jesus Christ? Have you seen Christ? “ He that 
hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou 
then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am 
in the Father, and the Father in Me?” (John 14:9, 10). 
You and I may have a believing sight of the glory of our 
exalted Lord on cross-crowned Calvary. ‘“ And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” 
Men are attracted to His throne by the dynamic of the 
cross. To the eye of faith the reality of the prophet’s 
vision now becomes permanent in the transfigured Christ, 
the manifest Jehovah. All that Isaiah saw is found in 
greater profusion in the brightness of a fuller revelation. 
The Son of God is at once the King of glory, the all- 
sufficient sacrifice on the altar of infinite love, and the 
absolving seraph, who can remove every form of impurity 
resting upon our sinful lips and hearts. “ Behold the 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 123 


Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” 
(John 1:29). Have you and I seen ourselves in the light 
of His loving sacrifice for sin? Have we been over- 
whelmed not only by a vision of His holiness and His 
moral perfection, but also by His condescending love? 
Have we confessed our sins and been forgiven? Have 
our hearts been stirred into action by the consciousness 
of sins forgiven? 

Isaiah’s vision, in the third place, is not complete with- 
out a vision of duty. Pardoned and forgiven, he rises at 
once to the regal heights of a voluntary service at the call 
of a holy but gracious Deity. The driving power of a 
grateful heart finds expression. in ungrudging service to 
God and man. He did not lull his conscience to sleep, like 
so many lip-serving ritualists in the temple courts, by 
adding a sacrificial thank-offering to his sin-offering, for 
“the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” The 
flocks and herds “on a thousand hills are Mine, saith the 
Lord.” Nor did he regard the shekels in his possession as 
an equivalent for personal service, for “the silver and the 
gold is Mine.” His gratitude did not stop with the giving 
of things; he gave himself by presenting his body as a 
living sacrifice upon the altar of a whole-hearted service. 
He believed in consecrating his whole personality and all 
that he had to the service of an exceedingly gracious God. 
He made the members of his immediate family contribute 
to the one great mission of his life. He was married to 
“the prophetess” (8:1 ff.) and had two sons, whose 
names expressed two important aspects of his teaching. 
The name of the one was “ Swift-booty-speedy-prey ” 
(Maher-shalal-hash-baz), and foretokened the speedy 
downfall of Damascus and Samaria. Shear-yashub 
(7:3), the name of his other son, bore witness to Isaiah’s 
prediction that a remnant of the people should return from 
exile to the land of their fathers (6:13; 10:22). His 


124 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


own name, “ Jehovah is salvation,” and the names of his 
children were for prophetic signs and tokens in Israel 
(8:18). He could say with the apostle, “ This one thing 
Lido. ¢ 

The man, who ascends the hill of the Lord to look with 
steadfast gaze on God made manifest in the flesh, will soon 
discover under the shadow of the cross that his vision of 
Christ must be supplemented by a vision of his Christian 
duty. There will spring up spontaneously within him a 
desire to serve Him whose name he bears, and whose fol- 
lower he pretends to be. To him the sense of pardon is a 
sufficient motive for voluntary service. He does not need 
to be pressed into service by the irresistible compulsions 
of Omnipotence. His only motive is the compulsion of 
love to Him, “ who first loved us.” The divine call is an 
inner necessity to Isaiah and to every pardoned sinner 
who has heard the voice of the Lord saying, “ Whom shall 
I send, and who will go for us?” ‘There is no sluggish 
indecision on his part in answering the divine call for a 
messenger, which was expressed in general terms, for his 
name is not even mentioned. Nevertheless there leaps 
from his lips the immediate response, “ Here am I, send 
me.” Nothing is said of the natural qualifications which 
are deemed necessary for the prophetic office. These are 
presupposed because they precede the actual call to service. 
It is interesting to note in this connection that although 
Isaiah has been prepared for his work by a vision of God 
and the assurance of divine forgiveness, it is not until he 
freely offers himself for the work to which he has been 
called that God bids him go and tell what he has seen and 
heard. He is actuated by motives far above the low level 
of an irksome duty; he has ascended to the lofty level of 
inclination and ofa glad choice. 

How far removed is the joyous consecration of Isaiah to 
his task from the imperfect and unwilling consecration of 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 125 


many of the most brilliant young men in our city churches! 
How is it that the great majority of young men possessing 
more than average ability are so unlike Isaiah in this re- 
spect? Are those most qualified for the work of the min- 
istry freely offering themselves for service as they ought? 
The truth of the matter is that many of our most talented 
young men often deem themselves too good for the min- 
istry. Having been attracted by the dollar-mark on the 
brow of mammon, they freely dedicate their talents to the 
god of riches. This is an age in which things are meas- 
ured for the most part in terms of economic values, all 
superficial protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. 
An alarmingly small percentage of the brightest boys in 
college ever find their way into the ministry. Infected as 
they are with the materialistic mammon-worship of the 
age they, of course, have made other plans. They are de- 
termined to make their mark in the business world; they 
must become mechanical and civil engineers, chemists and 
doctors, corporation lawyers and stock brokers, anything 
else, in short, but consecrated ministers of the gospel. Do 
you say that many qualified young men pass by the min- 
istry because they no longer regard it as a man’s job? My 
friend, be honest with yourself. Your own argument 
points to the fact that a higher estimate is placed upon 
things material than upon the deeper realities of life, 
otherwise the young men in question would turn to the 
ministry and make it a man’s job. Most of these young 
men have never seen God in His majesty and holiness, or 
if they did the confession and removal of their sins has 
never prompted them to the grateful act of a voluntary 
service to God and their fellowmen. © Jehovah incar- 
nate has been saying for well-nigh two thousand years, 
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And the 
potential Isaiahs of today remain speechless and therefore 
praiseless in the presence of. Him to whom they owe every 


126 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


blessing both temporal and spiritual. Some of them may 
be saying in muffled tones, “ Send me, Lord; I will follow 
Thee some day, if Thou wilt suffer me first to do this or 
that”? (Matt. 8:21-22), and meanwhile they drift into 
lucrative positions. By putting off their decision to a 
more convenient season they have stifled their consciences ; 
they have lost the vision of the spiritual by riveting their 
attention upon the things of earth. 

Procrastination in religion is always fatal, as may be 
seen from the hardened materialists of Isaiah’s day. How 
strange, how passing strange, that while the works of 
nature reflect the glory of an infinitely wise Creator, only 
man is vile and refuses to show forth the transcendent 
glory of a gracious God! Oh, how the heart of the Church 
yearns for men of strong spiritual faith with acute ethical 
perceptions, and who are keenly sensitive to the religious 
and moral conditions of their age! The Church is calling, 
as never before, for men of faith, with a vision of the 
spiritual and with an impelling sense of pardon, eager to 
volunteer for service. Willingness to serve comes from a 
believing sight of God and an experience of divine for- 
giveness. Do you really believe in God? If so, you are 
bound to make known that faith unto others. Have you 
experienced His pardoning mercy? If so, you too have a 
commission to the unclean. A dynamic and working 
faith is satished with nothing short of a living sacrifice 
upon the altar of loving service. Do not wait for a super- 
natural vision in the hope of becoming an Isaiah. Do not 
wait for a stirring call to a conspicuous task, requiring 
more than average ability. Do not wait for great oppor- 
tunities which seldom come to the average man. And 
since men of the Isaiah-type are so extremely scarce, let 
us be willing to do the work of an average man, for, after 
all, the great bulk of the world’s work is done not by 
Isaiahs but by average men like ourselves. To meet the 


THE CALL OF ISAIAH 127 


crying needs of the Church, God is calling not for men 
who are waiting to have their work thrust upon them, but 
for volunteers, rejoicing at the opportunity of declaring 
the vision which they have seen. The Church is almost 
overwhelmed with opportunities to “ go in and possess the 
land.” But alas! many an opportunity passes by unim- 
proved for lack of ministers and missionaries to take the 
lead in this glorious conquest. Are the young men of our 
churches equal to the challenge? Are there no boys or 
young men, no high school or college students in our con- 
gregations, who ought to become ministers of the gospel 
and missionaries of the cross of Jesus Christ? What 
Christian young man will be the first to volunteer for 
service in the home and foreign field? If the love of 
Christ is in your heart, you will instinctively exclaim, 
“ Here am I, send me! Send me to my unchristian friends 
and acquaintances; send me anywhere in the wide world, 
for I can do all things through Christ, who strengthen- 
eth me.” 


VII 
THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 


JEREMIAH 1: 4-19 


istry, Jeremiah was born of a priestly family in 

Anathoth, a small town about three miles northeast 
of Jerusalem. “ The son of Hilkiah”” doubtless received 
a good literary training, especially at a time when the liter- 
ary treasures of the nation were in the hands of the 
priests, Unlike Isaiah, he never experienced the comforts 
of a home of his own, “ Thou shalt not take thee a wife, 
neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place” 
(16:2). As the herald of the approaching dissolution of 
a doomed commonwealth, he is to remain unmarried, be- 
cause the inhabitants of the land are soon to perish by the 
sword, by famine and pestilence. He was regarded as a 
pessimist, and sneered at, ridiculed and persecuted by all 
classes of society. His unwelcome message fell upon deaf 
ears. Those who should have known better opposed him 
in his work and laid violent hands upon him. Being only 
a man and not the Man of Sorrows of a later period, he 


A LMOST a hundred years after Isaiah began his min- 


—_— 


occasionally (11:20; 15:15; 18:21-23) gave vent to his 


feelings after the manner of the imprecatory psalms. His 
life was a prolonged martyrdom. The moods of a great 
prophet vary, like those of other men, with the stress of 
the hour, and hence we are not surprised to find here and 
there a cry of anguish and of unspeakable pain in spite of 
all self-mastery. What makes this great prophet so in- 
tensely interesting is that he lays bare to his readers, in the 


128 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 129 


form of a series of confessions, the inmost thoughts and 
feelings of his own soul, from which we learn to know the 
man in his weakness as well as his strength. He is by 
nature a psychologist, who tries to analyze the motives of 
the heart. He dissects his own mind and reflects upon his 
own personal experiences. Turning from his unsympa- 
thetic contemporaries to himself, he looks within, and dis- 
covers that religion, after all, is a matter of the heart. He 
emphasizes the inwardness of religion, the value of which 
is no longer determined by a national relationship to the 
God of Israel but by a personal fellowship with God. 

He is the prophet of personal piety. By this we do not 
mean to imply that there was no personal piety in Israel 
before the time of Jeremiah. All that we mean to say is 
that Jeremiah is the first prophet to emphasize, more than 
any of his predecessors, the personal note in religion. 
Amos, as we have seen, gave to it the ethical note ; Hosea 
interpreted religion in terms of a holy love; Isaiah empha- 
sized the need of faith; and now Jeremiah says that the 
destruction of the nation as such will not involve a like 
fate for its religion, for true piety consists in the fellow- 
ship of the individual soul with God. These great truths 
of religion come to a focus in the prophet of the new cove- 
nant, written on the heart of the individual. Jeremiah, if 
not the greatest of the prophets, stands second only to 
Isaiah. 

Our prophet reminds us of Hosea, who prophesied at an 
equally critical moment in the history of the northern 
kingdom. The decline and fall of Israel and Judah re- 
spectively is ascribed by both prophets to religious apos-~ 
tasy. Throughout the entire history of both kingdoms 
idolatry was extremely popular. As early as the time of 
Ahaz, Assyrian idolatry had been introduced with great 
splendour in Jerusalem; and through the untheocratic 
policy of this faithless king, Judah became tributary to 


130 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Assyria. Instead of trusting in Jehovah, Ahaz wanted to 
secure the favour of the gods of his powerful overlord. 
Later, under the influence of Isaiah, Hezekiah “ removed 
the high places, and broke the statues, and cut down the 
groves, and broke in pieces the brazen serpent ” (II Kings 
18:4). This was the first organized attempt to banish the 
worst features of idolatry from the religion of the fathers. 
Unhappily, Hezekiah died when Manasseh was only 
twelve years of age. Under the baleful influence of the 
aristocratic heathen party in Jerusalem, Hezekiah’s re- 
forms were neutralized during the bloody, reactionary 
reign of his apostate son. The latter did not simply aim 
at a complete restoration of the idolatrous practices which 
Ahaz had introduced; the temple became a veritable pan- 
theon for all sorts of imaginary gods. There was Baal 
and Ashtoreth, Moloch and a host of star-gods. Special 
attention was paid to star-worship, because it was an in- _~ 
tegral part of the official religion of the Assyrians. Ma- 
nasseh, at this time, was an Assyrian vassal, who seemed to 
think that a dependent relation to Assyria argued the su- 
periority of that nation’s gods. Assyrian idolatry, at any 
rate, so it was argued, had the prestige of splendid success, 
whereas the devotees of Jehovah-worship had sunk to the 
level of political impotence. Why not worship these gods 
in place of Jehovah, or if Jehovah is to be worshipped at 
all, let it be of such a character that it cannot be distin- 
guished from the idolatrous worship of the surrounding 
nations, since the God of Israel is only one of many gods. 
These gods, it appears, were worshipped with an ardour 
akin to madness. Manasseh himself led the way in sacri- 
ficing his own son to Moloch in the Valley of Hinnom 
(II Chron. 33:6. See also II Kings 16:3). It was 
hoped by such means to appease the divine anger and to 
compel the gods to accede to the desires of their votaries. 
After Manasseh’s death, Amon followed in his father’s 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 131 


footsteps by adhering to the religious tenets of heathenism. 
Idolatry was still the official religion when Josiah came to 
the throne. The year before Jeremiah began his ministry, 
the pious king undertook in all earnest the tremendous task 
of abolishing the public manifestations of idolatry without 
being able, of course, to change the idolatrous hearts of 
his subjects. The stately high places in Judah and about 
Jerusalem were destroyed, together with the various Baal- 
altars, “and the Asherim, and the carven images and the 
molten images” (II Chron. 34:3). ‘The work of refor- 
mation was extended to the territory formerly occupied by 
the tribes of northern Israel. Bands of official iconoclasts 
went everywhere, destroying the grosser forms of idolatry 
in all parts of the land. In appearance at least, Jehovah- 
worship had once more come into its own, for the purified 
seat of Baal-worship in the very heart of the temple soon 
became the exclusive centre of public worship. The right 
of worshipping at local shrines and chapels was abrogated 
by law, all public worship being confined to the one legal 
sanctuary at Jerusalem. Outwardly, that is to say, from 
the point of view of the externals of religion, all was well. 
But alas, seventy years of idolatry had left an indelible - 
mark upon the religious consciousness of the people. The 
well-meaning king could not check the idolatrous inclina- 
tions of a people whose hearts had been permanently es- 
tranged from the living God. Multitudes of ritualists 
gathered in the temple courts to perform with the strictest 
punctiliousness every detail of the ceremonial part of re- 
ligion. To them rites and ceremonies constituted the sum 
and substance of religion. This unspiritual and superficial 
view of religion was really a legacy from their former 
heathen associations. The image-worshippers of heathen 
antiquity looked upon ritualistic formulas and ceremonies 
as the beginning and end of religion. Such inherited no- 
tions of religion inevitably resulted in that empty formal- 


132 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ism which was so abhorrent to Jeremiah when he began 
his ministry (626 B. c.). It was commonly supposed that 
ceremonial worship would be just as pleasing to the God 
of Israel as it had been to the imaginary gods of the past. 
And, worst of all, they would not persuade themselves to, 
worship Jehovah alone; they still clung to their old patron’ 
saints. 

To uproot the ingrained idolatry of the past seventy 
years was next to impossible. That Josiah’s reforms only 
touched the surface of things is clearly recognized by Jere-- 
miah, Almost immediately on his being called to office, he 
receives instructions to go and proclaim his first message 
in the metropolis, from which we gather that the reforma- 
tion of Josiah was far from successful. The dominant 
subject of that discourse is Judah’s idolatry, which is de- 
nounced by him in terms similar to those found in Hosea. 
The latter’s figure of marriage is also appropriated with a 
view to pointing out the deep intimacy of the nation’s re- 
ciprocal relation to Jehovah. Jeremiah begins his first 
prophetic discourse (chapters 2-6) by recalling the far 
happier days of the nation’s infancy, when the young vir- 
gin followed her divine husband with all the loving devo- 
tion of a true attachment. “The word of Jehovah was 
communicated to me, saying, Go and proclaim in the ears 
of Jerusalem, saying, ] remember for thy sake the loving - 
kindness of thy youth, the love of thy betrothal, thy fol- 
lowing of Me in the desert, in a land unsown.” The arbi- 
trariness of Israel’s defection from Jehovah is so unna- 
tural. The beast of burden in Isaiah’s time is led by a 
truer instinct than rebellious Israel, for “the ox knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,” Israel, on the 
other hand, is no longer conscious of its dependence upon 
God. Jeremiah makes a similar observation when he says 
that “the very stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed 
times, and the turtle-dove and the crane and the swallow 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 133 


observe the time of their arrival” (8:7); not so Judah. 
What the migratory instinct is to the birds of the air, that 
religion ought to be to the heart of man; man alone is un- 
true to the law of his being. But Judah’s ingratitude to 
God is not only unnatural; it is also most unreasonable 
and without precedent. “ Hear ye the word of Jehovah, 
O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel! 
What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went 
far from Me and followed idols? Hath a heathen nation 
changed gods, though they are no-gods?”’ But apostate 
Israel “ hath forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, 
to hew out for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water ” 
(2:18). Why drink of the soiled waters of the Nile and 
of the Euphrates, when the Fountain of living waters was 
still in their midst? Why seek foreign alliances and the 
protection of foreign gods, when simple trust in the Al- 
mighty would produce far better results? Will they ever 
learn that the religion of the Hebrews will never mix with 
heathen politics? For some reason the ungrateful nation 
has always manifested, to a greater or less degree, an un- 
controllable impulse to idolatry. “For long ago didst 
thou break thy yoke, didst thou burst thy bonds, and 
saidst, I will not obey; for upon every high hill, and under 
every green tree thou wert crouching in fornication, saying 
to a block, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou didst 
bring me forth; for they have turned to Me the back and 
not the face; yet in the time of their calamity they will say, 
Arise and deliver us!” 

There were gods many and cults many; each city had its 
own tutelary god, and Jerusalem was filled with the in- 
cense altars of false gods. “I had planted thee a noble 
vine, wholly a genuine seed; how then art thou changed 
with respect to Me into the wild offshoots of a foreign 
vine? Though thou wash thyself with nitre and take thee 
much soap, yet thine iniquity is ingrained before Me, saith 


1384 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the Lord Jehovah.” In the third chapter of his prophecy 
Jeremiah continues, ‘And Jehovah said unto me in the 
days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what apostate Is- 
rael did? She went upon every high mountain, and under 
every green tree, and played the harlot there. And I said, 
after she had done all these things, Return unto Me, but 
she did not return; and her faithless sister Judah,” instead 
of avoiding the sin which had brought destruction upon 
northern Israel, “‘ went and played the harlot also. Judah 
hath not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but with 
falsehood, saith Jehovah.” What Judah needed above all 
else was not a reformation of the externals of religion but 
a regeneration of the human heart. Nothing short of sin- 
cere repentance can save a doomed nation. Hence the 
prophet says, “O Jerusalem, cleanse thy heart from wick- 
edness. Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among 
thorns. Circumcise yourselves unto Jehovah, and take 
away the foreskins of your heart” (4:14, 3, 4). The 
outer symbol must become an inner reality. By the shed- 
ding of the blood of circumcision the offspring of the 
chosen race was consecrated to God. It was the sign of 
the covenant by which the individual Israelite was ad- 
mitted to membership in the Old Testament Church. But 
this initiatory act must lead to an inner heart relationship 
between the God of Israel and His covenant people, and 
not to the perfunctory exercise of religious formalism. 
But how shall the mainspring of human action be 
changed? How shall the hardened sinner break with the 
habitual sins of his guilty past? “Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then shall ye 
also be able to do good that are accustomed to do evil” 
(133235) 

Reprobate silver and dross cannot be purified in the 
furnace of affliction (6: 27 ff.). God only can reform and~ 
change them. He will give them a new heart and put His 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 135 


law in their inward parts. In that new age the old broken 
covenant will be superseded by a new covenant, written not 
on tables of stone, but on the tables of individual hearts. 
Such a covenant cannot fail because God’s love will be the 
conspicuous all-determining factor (31:3). “ This is the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, and 
with the house of Judah after those days, saith Jehovah: 
I will put My law in their inward parts and write it in 
their hearts” (31:33). The cumbersome, ritualistic re- 
quirements of the old covenant will be done away. Men 
will no longer depend for their knowledge of God upon the 
Aaronic priesthood; they shall know Him at first hand. 
In view of man’s direct access to God the priests shall no 
longer teach their brother Israelites, saying, ““ Know Jeho- 
vah, for they shall know Me, from the least even unto the 
greatest of them, saith Jehovah; for I will pardon their 
iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. I will 
make with them an everlasting covenant” (31:34; 
32:40). For the present, however, the joy of the prophet 
was restrained by the thought of his people’s unwilling- 
ness to meet the conditions of the new age. They per- 
sisted in their stubbornness of heart, and so it was deter- 
mined in the providence of God that they should drink the 
cup of suffering to the very dregs. 

To avoid impending doom a real and not a nominal 
reformation was needed. But the nation would not for- 
sake the flagrant immoralities of heathenism which had 
been dominant throughout the long and disastrous reign 
of Manasseh. The exhortations of the prophet to repent- 
ance were met with the defiant declaration, “ There is no 
hope, for we will follow our own devices and will act each 
according to the obstinacy of his wicked heart” (18:12). 
In view of the inveterate propensity of the Jews to idol- 
atrous indulgences there can be no immediate prospect for 
improvement in the prevailing social and moral conditions 


136 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with 
the point of a diamond it is graven upon the tablet of their 
heart, and upon the horns of their altars” (17:1). The 
long reign of heathen-hearted Manasseh had corrupted the 
whole fabric of society; high and low alike are corrupt 
(chaps. 5 and 9). The moral causes of the coming dis- 
aster are not unlike those of the earlier prophets. 

The call of Jeremiah is described in the opening chapter 
(vv. 4-19) of his prophecy. His mission was originated 
to supplement Josiah’s reformation which amounted to 
nothing more than a revival of external religion. The 
young prophet did not expect too much from the icono- 
clastic purification of public worship which led to no 
change in the inward disposition of the people. There was 
required a spiritual regeneration which the youthful 
statesman could not inaugurate. Personal spiritual work 
needed to be done. It remained for the prophet to speak 
to the heart of Judah. Whether or not the nation would 
repent is not for him to determine. 

In the thirteenth year of Josiah (626 B. c.) “the word 
of Jehovah came unto me saying, Before I formed thee in 
the belly I selected thee, and before thou camest forth 
from the womb I consecrated thee; I appointed thee a 
prophet unto the nations.’”’. Under what circumstances, or 
where, he received his call we do not know. As Ana- 
thoth was only two or three miles distant from Jerusalem, 
we are inclined to think that the event took place in one of 
the courts of the temple, whither he had gone to worship. 
This supposition is founded on verse 9, which is strongly 
reminiscent of the call of Isaiah (Isa. 6:7). Like Isaiah, 
he spent his active ministry in Jerusalem. While no men- 
tion is made of an appearance of Jehovah, “the word of 
Jehovah ” came to him with all the force of a personal call 
to the prophetic office. That he had been divinely chosen 
before his birth for a special work must have been of some 


penne 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 137 


comfort to the potential priest, facing a great but cheerless 
task. Does this act of consecration furnish a parallel to 
the vow of Hannah, which if once made was irrevocable, 
since the object of that vow became forthwith God’s 
property? Or does it mean that the unborn son of a priest 
was consecrated, as a matter of course, to the service of 
God, since the members of the priestly tribe belonged, in a 
very peculiar sense, to Jehovah? In any event, the result 
is the same, whether the prophet was divinely chosen be- 
fore or after conception. Jeremiah realizes that he belongs 
absolutely'to his Maker, that God has a perfect right to do 
with His property as He Himself sees fit, and that what- 
ever gifts have been bestowed upon him must be employed 
in the service of God and man. However, divine pre- 
destination in this case is not identical with fatalism or an 
absolute decree from which there is no escape. If Jere- 
miah had regarded it as such, why should he even attempt 
to argue the point in the hope of escaping the responsibil- 
ity which now rested upon him? He must co-operate with 
God in carrying out the divine plan concerning Judah and 
the nations round about. Predestination, while it turns the 
will of man in a God-ward direction, does not altogether 
destroy the ethical factor, which asserts itself here, by way 
of reaction, to the extent of calling in question the appro- 
priateness and fitness of the divine call. 

Indeed, Jeremiah did not at once accept the call. The 
seeming hopelessness of his prophetic mission to an alien- 
ated people, coupled as it was at this critical juncture, with 
a world-wide mission, was too much for the timid young 
man. He was seized with an instinctive fear of the ma- 
licious opposition which he would have to encounter. 
Part of his pain was occasioned by the thought that he 
would have to contend, among other things, against the 
corrupt priests and the false prophets of his day. He was 
a man of peace, and to be a prophet to the nations, to 


188 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


harden his brow like flint against his own kinsmen and the 
people of Judah, and to preach unpleasant truths when he 
would fain speak peace, was an alarming prospect. He 
shrank from the open assumption of the prophetic office 
under such trying circumstances, and therefore pleads his 
youthful inexperience and consequent unfitness for the 
work to which he has been called. Lacking, as he does, 
the necessary subject-matter for the discourses of a 
prophet, it would be folly for him to stand up among his 
fellowmen as the representative and spokesman of God. 
He feels that if he is to speak for God he must have some- 
thing worth saying, for every messenger must have a mes- 
sage. “Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to © 
speak, for I am but a youth.” Jeremiah may at this time ~ 
have been about eighteen or twenty years of age. But the 
youth must learn how to, lose himself in his message. 
“And Jehovah said unto me, Say not I am but a youth, 
for to whomsoever I send thee, thou shalt go, and whatso-’ 
ever I command thee, thou shalt speak.” Let no man 
despise his youth, not even in oriental society, where a 
young man could not hope to command the same respect 
in public that would be accorded to a man of maturer 
years. What further authority is needed for the procla- 
mation of God’s will than the divine command itself? 
Why be afraid of the adversary when it would be far more 
perilous to disobey the Almighty? ‘The best cure for the 
fear of man is the fear of God. He will help him in the 
discharge of present duty. “ Be not afraid of their faces, 
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah... . 
Gird up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that 
I command thee; be not afraid of their faces, lest I make 
thee afraid before them.” 

To silence the doubts and the misgivings of the waver- 
ing youth with regard to the subject-matter of his pro- 
phetic utterances, “ Jehovah put forth His hand and 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 139 


touched my mouth and said unto me, Behold, I have put 
My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day appointed 
thee to be a prophet over the nations and over the king- 
doms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to 
overturn ; to build and to plant.” He is to preach, not the, 
chaff of human wisdom, but the revealed Word of God, 
and the ideas which he is to express shall be inspired from 
on high. The authority vested in him is not that of the 
secular arm. To the exponent of God’s world-plan there 
is committed the power of divine truth and of those fun- 
damental ethical principles without which nothing can en- 
dure. God’s Word is more lasting and powerful in its 
effects than brute force. This power may have both a 
destructive and a constructive effect, as the above passage 
clearly indicates. Jeremiah is “to root out and to pull 
down, to destroy and to overturn.” The metaphors em- 
ployed are borrowed from botany and architecture, the 
nations and the governments being likened now to trees 
and now to buildings. In the case of Judah the root evil 
of the time is idolatry, which must be eradicated. This 
cannot be accomplished by a reformation of public wor- 
ship. Josiah may remove the stocks and stones and de- 
molish the carven and molten images, but the heart will 
continue to worship “ the old patron saint.”’ He may level 
to the ground the high places in the land and centralize 
public worship in Jerusalem without being able to change 
the idolatrous tendency of the inner sanctuary of the indi- 
vidual worshipper. ‘This only the Word of God can do by 
regenerating the heart. ‘There is no other cure. Idola- 
trous buildings and institutions must not only be pulled 
down ; the very foundation stones must be overturned and 
completely destroyed. There is but one weapon, one blast- 
ing instrument, that will avail, and that is the Word of 
God. “Is not My Word like as a fire? saith Jehovah; and 
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (23:29). 


140 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


The destructive character of the divine judgments, placed 
in the prophet’s mouth, is said to resemble the devouring 
action of fire, when brought into contact with dry timber. 
“ Surely they have acted very faithlessly towards Me, both 
the house of Israel and the house of Judah, saith Jehovah. 
They have denied Jehovah; They have said, He will not 
do it; therefore calamity shall not overtake us, neither 
shall we see sword nor famine. Wherefore thus saith 
Jehovah, Because ye speak this word, Behold I will make 
My words in thy mouth. fire, and this people wood, and it 
shall devour them” (5:11, 12, 14). 

The destructive aspect of God’s Word applies not only 
to Israel but to all nations as well. Idolatrous institutions 
everywhere will ultimately be overthrown. The flash of a 
fuller revelation will one day consume them like so much 
combustible material. When that time comes heathen , 
idols will be piled on a heap, and devoured by the fire of 
the Holy Ghost. The bulwarks of heathenism cannot 
stand, when once the dynamite of God’s Word is applied 
to the tottering foundations of outworn fancies. But 
these external changes must be preceded by an inward 
transformation of the desires and the aspirations of the 
human heart. Every form of unrighteousness must come 
under the condemnation of the Lord of Hosts. The uni- 
verse is built on righteous foundations. How can any 
nation build contrary to the divine plan without exposing 
that structure to the destructive influences of the physical 
and spiritual laws of a well-governed universe? In the 
realm of the spiritual, divine forgiveness is conditioned 
upon repentance and a desire to do God’s will. “If once 
I speak respecting a nation, and respecting a kingdom to 
root out and to pull down and to destroy, and that nation 
turn from its wickedness, respecting which I spake, then I 
will repent of the calamity which I intended to inflict upon 
it. And it shall come to pass that as I have acted vigi- 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 141 


lantly with respect to them to root out and to pull down, 
and to overturn and to destroy and to afflict, so I will act 
vigilantly with respect to them, to build and to plant, saith 
Jehovah. ... And, if again I speak respecting a nation 
and respecting a kingdom, to build and to plant, and it do 
that which is wicked in My sight, not obeying My voice, 
then I will repent of the good, wherewith I promised to 
beneht, the isame 7) (1837-830) 31 2 28> 1829-10)! The 
prophet is made to realize that the words, which he is 
authorized to declare, concerning the overthrow or restor- 
ation of Israel and of the nations in general, according as 
they should persist in or repent of their sins would be ful- 
filled with all the necessity of a divine law. God’s Word 
will accomplish its purpose, “For as the rain cometh 
down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not 
thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth 
and bud; and yieldeth seed to the sower and bread to the 
eater, so shall My word become, that goeth forth out of 
My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shail 
accomplish that for which I sent it” (Isa. 55: 10). 

How comforting to Jeremiah must have been the 
thought that the destructive effect of the Word was not an 
end in itself but a means to an end. The rank shoots of 
idolatry, of religious formalism, and of stiff-necked apos- 
tasy must be uprooted; the encumbered ground had to be 
cleared of all obstructions before true piety could take 
root in men’s hearts. ‘To accomplish that, the tree which 
God had planted in the national soil would have to be up- 
rooted, pulled down and carried into exile. Meanwhile it 
was incumbent upon Jeremiah not only to prepare men’s 
minds for that inglorious event but to build and to plant, 
and to bend to the task of laying the foundations for a 
better and higher future. He is firmly convinced that the 
proclamation of unpleasant tidings would bring upon his 
head the maledictions of high and low, but God now as- 


142 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


sures him of His unfailing presence, and his shrinking 
timidity is converted into the invincible strength of an im- 
pregnable fortress and of a heart of steel. ‘“‘ Behold, I 
make thee this day a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, 
and a wall of brass against the whole land; against the 
kings of Judah and against her princes, against her priests 
and against the people of the land. They may fight against 
thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with 


thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.” His fears were | 


abundantly justified by forty years of bitter opposition and 
cruel persecution. As the bearer of an unwelcome mes- 
sage he was exposed to constant reproach and to the peril 
of death. At times he felt like withdrawing from the 
arena of public life into which he had been thrust by an 
irresistible impulse. But he is impelled to unburden him- 
self of the message which involuntarily leaps into pro- 
phetic utterance. “Thou didst persuade me, O Jehovah, 
and I was persuaded ; Thou wast stronger than I and didst 
prevail. Day after day the work of Jehovah was made a 
reproach unto me and a derision. And I said, I will not 
make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name; 
but there was in my heart as it were a burning fire, shut 
up in my bones, and I laboured to contain myself, but I 
could not ” (20:7, 8,9). Nevertheless, his faith in God 
is such that he immediately expresses his confidence in the 
divine protection, “ But Jehovah will be with me as a for- 
midable hero, therefore shall my persecutors stumble and 
not prevail” (20:11). Thus strengthened, he perseveres 
to the very last in the path of duty with remarkable brav- 
ery and heroism. One source of strength was his inti- 
mate fellowship and communion with God.) And Jehovah 
gave him His word. On this the prophet fed and took 
fresh courage, “Thy words were found and I did eat 
them; and Thy word became to me the joy and gladness 
of my heart ” (15: 16). 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 143 


You must expect to encounter opposition as soon as you 
attempt, on the strength of God’s Word, to assail hollow 
formality and vested interests, thriving on the very thing 
you are condemning, But be not afraid of their faces, if 
the prophetic word is beating in your breast like an iron 
hammer which cannot be silenced. Be faithful to the mes- 
sage which has been communicated to you. Be true to 
your commission, for the message which you have received 
is not your own property ; it belongs to others and you are 
merely the messenger. Be ever mindful of the great dig- 
nity of your office. There is committed to your trust the 
golden casket of divine truth. It is the greatest dynamic 
in all the world. Viewed from its ultimate effects, it is 
the height of folly to oppose it without coming under its 
destructive influence. It is the hammer that smiteth in 
pieces life’s Gibraltars. Learn to wield this weapon in 
keeping with the twofold purpose for which it was placed 
in your mouth. It will destroy the object that opposes it 
but wherever it is free to do a constructive work a won- 
derful change is wrought in the human heart; man be- 
comes a new creature, for the mainsprings of life and of 
human actions are renewed. To work this miracle the 
encumbered ground must first be cleared of the rank un- 
dergrowth of poisonous plants; these must be uprooted 
and destroyed before the seed of divine truth can take firm 
root. The modern prophet no less than Jeremiah of old, 
faces the task of renewing society, not by political, social, 
or ecclesiastical reforms, however desirable these may be 
in themselves, but by a change of heart. A change in the 
mode of worship may leave untouched the strongholds of 
idolatry in the human heart. Many nominal Christians, 
while outwardly conforming to correct standards of wor- 
ship may still retain a heart wedded to their own selfish 
purposes and to the idolatrous materialism of the age. To 
pull down the strongholds of idolatry, and to content one- 


144 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


self with an outward propriety, is not enough. A refor- 
mation that does not include a fundamental regeneration 
of the whole man defeats itself because it fails to reform. 
The old evils persist in a modified form. The only hope 
of eradicating them lies in the destructive and constructive 
process of the Word of God. Knowing that some things 
must be destroyed and intuitively conscious of the sinful 
bias of men’s hearts and minds, many a prospective Jere- 
miah naturally recoils, when called, from the course 
indicated. 

But, my friends, have we a right to excuse ourselves 
from prophesying or preaching the Word on the ground 
of youthful inexperience? Remember that you are part 
of God’s plan of salvation and that Jehovah still selects 
for the work of the ministry His Jeremiahs long before 
they are born. Before birth, in the secret laboratory of 
nature, God distributes in some mysterious way, prophetic 
gifts to many souls still unborn. Consequently He has a 
right to come to many young men and say, “ Say not I am 
a youth, for to whomsoever I send thee, thou shalt go, and 
whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.” Remem- 
ber that you are God’s property, and that His gifts are not 
yours to keep for yourself; the prophetic gift only grows 
by using it in the service of others. Perhaps you are not 
conscious of any ability in this direction, and your heart 
sinks in dismay at the first promptings of the voice of 
conscience, suggesting the ministry as your vocation in 
life. Surely you will not deny that God has given to every 
man at least one talent; to some He has given as high as 
five or ten talents. “ Stir up the gift that is in you,” and 
you will discover by degrees what is the share which has 
fallen to you. The gift may lie dormant because you have 
not as yet learned the lesson which Jesus taught in the 
parable of the talents. Your talents will increase and mul- 
tiply if you do not bury them in the soil of your sordid 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 145 


desires, and thus defeat the very purpose for which they 
were given you. If you are perfectly honest and sincere, 
you will discover ere long that the still small voice within 
you does not persist in calling you to the work of the min- 
istry unless there is a good reason for it. Ah, my friend, 
does it not suggest the thought that possibly you are one of 
those predestined souls of which I have spoken? If so, do 
not continue to think of your disqualifications for the 
Christian ministry, for “our sufficiency is of God” 
(II Cor. 3:5). Let the Word of God be your daily food, 
and the subject-matter for your future sermonic dis- 
courses will not fail you. “ Thy words were found and I 
did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and 
gladness of my heart ” (Jer. 15:16). 

Whatever else you may study and do as a prospective 
preacher remember that you are to be a man of the Word. 
Therefore, know the Word, feed upon it, study it, medi- 
tate upon it, assimilate it and make it your own. Then the 
message which you are to deliver to the hardened sinners 
of our own time will be like the hammer strokes of a 
mighty conviction, reinforced by the spiritual laws of 
divine omnipotence. However violent the antagonism, 
you may rest assured that God’s Word will accomplish its 
object ; either it will destroy the opposition of evil hearts 
even to the undoing of the wicked themselves, or effect a 
work of grace. Some good will come of your preaching. 
How righteous and divine, how regal and powerful is the 
Word of God! “The Word of God is quick and power- 
ful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even 
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints 
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). It is the sword of the Spirit 
which is stronger than the sword of the warrior, for “the 
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty 
through God to the pulling down of strongholds ” (II Cor. 


146 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


10:4). Though seemingly the frailest of weapons, it is 
the most powerful. Words have overturned and outlived 
dynasties and kingdoms, and institutions. Where are the 
powerful armies that terrified the hearts of men, when 
Isaiah and Jeremiah uttered and committed to writing 
their immortal words? Where is Babylon the mighty, 
what has become of proud Nineveh, what has become of 
the empire of the Pharaohs in the land of the Sphinx, 
where is Memphis, and ancient Rome? Visible kingdoms 
built on the receding sands of earthly might and prowess 
cannot endure. When Israel and Judah lost sight of the 
foundation upon which the Hebrew theocracy was built, 
and began to build on other foundations, the two kingdoms 
virtually pronounced their own doom. Isaiah and Jere- 
miah have immortalized that failure in words which still 
instruct the world. These prophetic gems of divine truth 
will never die, because they deserve to live. This much 
has been definitely fixed by an immutable law of God’s 
universe. 

Ultimately God’s will must be done in spite of all that 
wicked men can do to Jeremiah. The vain babblings and 
maledictions of a tumultuous people cannot restrain God’s 
servant from the exercise of his ministry. Though they 
lay violent hands upon him he will not, he cannot, swerve 
from his purpose. He has recourse to a communion and 
a fellowship which they know not of; the door to the 
Father’s presence is ever open. Thus strengthened by 
prayer, he is invincible; for God is with him. With this 
glorious champion and mighty hero by his side, he will 
persevere in the path of duty, knowing that victory will be 
his in the end. Although he finds it exceedingly hard to 
preach his glorious message, no man ever faced difficulties 
with braver resolution than this suffering servant of Je- 
hovah. He might have remained in the priestly commun- 
ity of Anathoth, and continued to live on the comfortable 


THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 147 


stipends of the tribe of Levi. In Judah it was a time of 
peace and prosperity. Why not leave good enough alone? 
So argued the priests at Anathoth and in Jerusalem; so 
argued the flattering false prophets who prophesied for 
gain; this, too, was the opinion of the worshipping multi- 
tudes in Jerusalem, who in the previous year had peace- 
fully submitted to the restoration of Jehovah-worship in 
the temple. The ritualists of Judah could not understand 
how even a prophet could cast to the four winds every 
earthly consideration for the sake of conscience. ‘The 
man who had been providentially called to a prophetic 
ministry could not but prophesy. The divine mandate had 
converted him into a well-fortified city, an iron pillar and 
a brazen wall. There he stood like a Gibraltar. Man was 
never more conscientious in the performance of duty. 
Jeremiah was not a man of outstanding genius who star- 
tled the world by the possession of extraordinary gifts. 
In most things he stood on a level with ordinary men. 
But he used whatever gifts God had given him to the best 
advantage. With God’s help he did the best he could and 
herein lies the secret of his greatness. 

Let every prospective Jeremiah learn the lesson that 
while some young men are apt to be over-confident, yea, 
self-confident, a man may contract the irreligious habit of 
measuring everything by his own slender resources and of 
cowering in abject fear before the divinely imposed task 
of a prophetic ministry. The consciousness of one’s in- 
ability is not a correct index to the possibilities which lie 
before us. Self-consciousness of an exaggerated type is 
deceiving; it is cowardly, and betrays a lack of faith in 
God. There is such a thing as distrusting God’s strength. 
We must be less conscious of self and more conscious of 
God. The man who becomes a great preacher is not the 
man who is always thinking of himself; it is the man who 
learns to concentrate his thoughts and aspirations on God 


148 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


and His message. Brother, whatever may be your doubts 
and perplexities, your silent questionings and misgivings, 
God is able to meet them all in the same manner in which 
He met the reluctance of men like Moses and Jeremiah, 
when He appeared to them in a vision, calling upon them 
to enter the ministry. God’s answer to Jeremiah will suf- 
fice for your needs as well. You are to be God’s spokes- 
man declaring the Word of divine truth to a sinful world. 
God speaks to men through human speech; even “the 
Word” (John 1: 1-14) was made flesh that the Man of 
Galilee might speak to man. Why hesitate and argue, 
when God puts into your mouth His written and revealed: 
Word, which is the greatest power in the universe? 
Learn to wield that weapon in keeping with its twofold 
purpose of pulling down and building up. The same 
mighty hammer that smiteth the rock in pieces is used in 
building up the walls of Zion. That Word will outlive the 
kings and empires of this world. “ Heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” 
(Mark 13:31). 

Briefly summarized, the call-experience of Jeremiah 
presents to us a diffident youth shrinking from the 
assumption of a difficult task. Though richly endowed, 
both by nature and by providence, for his prophetic 
work, he pleads his youthful inexperience as a dis- 
qualification for service. There is abundant justifica- 
tion for thinking that the prophetic consciousness alone is 
not sufficient for such a task. If Jeremiah is to speak for 
God, he must have a message. Once assured that the 
subject-matter of his prophetic utterances would not be 
lacking in his case, he undertakes his perilous and heroic 
mission, 


Vill 
THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 


EZEKIEL 1-3 


ZEKIEL, a younger contemporary of Jeremiah, 
H, also came of a priestly family. He spent his boy- 
hood amid the exciting scenes of Josiah’s icono- 
clastic reformation, which failed to accomplish any lasting 
good, because it was aimed at the externals of religion. 
While preparing himself for the priesthood at Jerusalem 
the youthful son of Buzi must have heard of the prophet 
of Anathoth, who made a heroic attempt to avert the com- 
ing national disaster by an appeal to men’s hearts, inas- 
much as a callous nation could be saved by nothing short 
of a radical change of heart. But this much-hoped-for 
spiritual regeneration with its far-reaching and beneficent 
effects upon the national life did not materialize. 

The sins of Israel in Ezekiel’s day are practicallythe 
same as those found in earlier prophetic literature. Tdol- 
atrous practices and ‘revolting heathen rites, copied from 
the abominations of all the nations from Egypt to Assyria, 
vied with the worship of Israel’s covenant God, Jehovah. 
\\ Even the temple precinct itself is polluted by idols. Sev- 
enty of the chief men of Judah are seen by the prophet, 
offering incense to pictures of animals and reptiles por- 
trayed on the walls of the temple. Near the north gate a 
company of women is seated on the ground weeping for 
Tammuz, the supposed God of the spring vegetation, 
whose death is bewailed when the powerful summer sun 
causes the herbs to wither. While this rite was in prog- 


149 


2 
eases, 
fe a ~% 


“Se, 


150 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ress, a group of twenty-five men is seen, standing in the 
very entrance of the temple and worshipping the rising 
sun, Similar rites are to be found in the whole land. The 
nation has broken its covenant with Jehovah. Apos- 


tasy, such as this, has vitiated its history from the be- 


ginning, the tendency toward idolatry being never wholly 
lacking, 

On the social side, the idol-mad inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem and of Judah are guilty of immorality, disobedience to 
parents, bribery, oppression, extortion, injustice, murder, 
and of many other forms of wickedness. These in general 
are condemned by the prophet, who insists upon the prac- 
tice of the opposite virtues. (Chap. 18.) 

Politically, Judah is fast approaching the brink of na- 
tional extinction. The reign of Josiah’s successors was 
characterized by political intrigues and restless plotting 
against Assyria. Foreign alliances are most detestable to 
Jehovah, since they are an evidence of a lack of faith in 
the theocratic head of the state. But the work of these 
faithless politicians will count for naught. In the year 
2297 8. c. the Assyrian army, the rod of God’s punitive 
anger, descended on Jerusalem and put an end to the in- 
glorious and treacherous reign of Jehoiachin, deporting 
him, along with ten thousand of the most prominent peo- 
ple, among them Ezekiel, to Babylonia, where they en- 
gaged in -agricult ture along one or more of the irrigating 
canals of the Euphrates River.. Ezekiel, for example, 
spent the greater part of his prophetic activity (993-9/1 
R. C.) ina Jewish settlement at Tell-Abib n near the Chebar- 
canal i in the vicinity of Ni ippur. It was in the fifth year of 
the exilé of the léading citizens of Jerusalem, or seven 
years before the destruction of _Judah’s capital (586. Bos. ) 
that. Ezekiel ré réceived his prophetic call. 

he call came to > Tm a5, eee case a Isaiah and 


— 


, THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 151 


length in chapters 1-3. We must think of Ezekiel as hav- 
ing left the village in which he dwelt and going forth to 
the banks of the canal, already mentioned, when suddenly 


“The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” 4 
He beheld a whirlwind approaching from the north, sur- , 


rounded by brightness, and continually flashing f forth in 
glory. Out of the storm cloud four composite _ creatures 
appear, each with four faces and four wings, and all mov- 
ing. harmoniously _ together. Each of the cherubim “had 
four different faces, on the right side that of a man and 
that of a,lion, representing divine intelligence and power ; 


— neers 


on the left that of of an eagle, suggestive of the penetrating 


vision of divine on ommniscience ; and brovidence, and, that of a 


eae 


ana 


aehled those of ‘quadrupeds and their wings were like 
those of huge birds with human hands beneath them. The 
cherubim are a part of the throne-chariot of the Almighty, 
resting on wonderful wheels full of eyes, whose motion is 
in perfect harmony with that of the cherubim, for one and 
the same spirit actuated both. The living creatures, or 
cherubim, supported on their heads a firmament, and on 
this expanse is a throne, the occupant of which was Jeho- 
vah Himself. The ee of Jehovah’s glory 


een ee 


. Sal EES 


eet Rrra / 


woe to the rebellious house of — ve Pia eit I saw 
it, I fell upon my face and I heard a voice saying unto me, 
Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto 
thee.” With the words came power to obey them. “ And 
the sRint < entered i into me when He spoke unto me and set 
me upon my feet>—And He said unto me, Son of man, I 
send thee to the children of Israel, and thou shalt speak 
My words unto them, whether they will hear or whether 
they will forbear, for they are rebellious.” His message 


152 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


is delivered to him in the form of a book, containing all of 
Jehovah’s words, and in materialistic symbolism the 
prophet of the exile becomes conscious of his inspiration 
by eating the inscribed roll which was handed to him. 
That the roll was eaten implies that he was to make God’s 
message his own by inwardly digesting ‘and assimilating it, 
so that it would | become a part of his very life. As it was 
not for a true prophet t to choose his message, Ezekiel did 
eat the book and, although it was full of lamentation and 
woe, found the bitter message ‘in _hus 1 mouth swe sweet | as» 
ier bitter word was sweet. 

This, too, was the experience of Jeremiah, who had said 
some years before, “’Thy words were found and I did eat 
them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of 
mine heart, for I am called by Thy name, Jehovah God of 
Hosts ” (15:16). While the Word of God was sweet to\ 


| Ezekiel because of its divine origin, it was also bitter to 
of him because of his love for Israel. “I went in bitterness 
\/and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.” But he 


must expect opposition and antagonism, for they are a 
brazen-faced and disobedient people, separated from God 
by a moral and spiritual barrier far more formidable than 
that caused by a foreign language. He is told that. if he 
had been sent to any of the barbarous nations with whose 
language he was unacquainted, they would have hearkened 
unto him. In spite of it all he must be loyal to the Word 
of the Lord. He must be prepared to meet the insolence 
of a defiant people with a forehead strong as an adamant 
and harder than flint. The feeling of authoritativeness on 
the part of the prophet is based on a “ Thus saith the Lord 
Jehovah!” Hereupon the vision leaves him, and he re- 
turns to the exiles at Tell-Abib. Utterly overwhelmed by 
his recent experience, for seven long days he sat among 
them in unbroken silence. 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 153 


At the end of this period he is commissioned to be a 
watchman with the care of individual souls. Like the 
watchman on the city wall, he is to stand upon the watch- 
tower of his superior spiritual vision and warn every trav- 
eller of the approaching enemy, lest they fall into the 
hands of the enemy and perish. But if he neglects his 
duty and fails to give the alarm so that the traveller may 
make haste and find refuge within the city gate, then the 
watchman will be answerable for the death of every one 
committed to his care. The word of the Lord came to 
Ezekiel, saying, “Son of man, I have appointed thee a 
watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the 
word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I 
say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou giv- 
est him no warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from 
his wicked way, so that he may save his life, that wicked 
man shall die for his sin; but his blood will I demand from 
thee. But if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from 
his wickedness and his evil way, he will surely die for his 
sin, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, if a righteous 
man fall from his righteousness and commits iniquity and 
he die; if thou hast not given him warning, he shall die for 
his sin and his righteous deeds will be forgotten, but his 
blood will I demand from thee. But if thou warn the 
righteous to keep from sin and he doth not sin, he shall 
surely live, because he has been warned, also thou hast 
delivered thy soul.” 

God’s prophetic watchman must warn the exiles of the 
just consequences of their acts. If any of them perished 
unwarned, he would be personally liable for the death of 
the impenitent, because he was in a better position than 
they to scan the horizon of the spiritual life and better able 
to discern the signs of the times in order to ascertain, 
under given conditions, what would happen in the future 
with all the inevitableness of a fixed, divine law. They 


154 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


must be taught to learn the inseparable connection between 
righteousness and life, between unrighteousness and death. 
He must bear witness to the truth and not permit the 
wicked to go on in his wickedness or the righteous to fall 
from his righteousness. In no other way can a spiritual 
watchman save his own life from the judgments of the 
wrath to come. He must do his duty without faltering, 
without fear or favour. Woe to the sentinel on the watch- 
tower who fails to give the signal at the approach of the 
enemy! May he cry out, as becometh a true watchman, 
and sound a timely warning to the pilgrims of earth. Let 
him attend to his duty and keep his eyes open, so that he 
may see the dust-cloud on the horizon of their lives; as we 
have it in Jeremiah 6: 27, “I have placed thee on the look- 
out among My people as a fortress that thou mayest know 
and'search their ways.” 

To Ezekiel, the inaugural vision that preceded his call 
was an objective reality, just as real as the sight of a phys- 
ical phenomenon. In describing that vision, Ezekiel, of 
course, like all the prophets, has his own literary style. 
Fach has his characteristic qualities of mind and tempera- 
ment as water takes the tint of the rocky bed over which 
it runs. But that does not affect the efficacy of the mes- 
sage itself, for the prophet 1s a channel of divine revela- 
tion through which the waters of life may flow without 
losing any of their life-giving qualities. For, after all, 
revelation is a translation of the thought of heaven into 
the language of earth. God deals with man through the 
instrumentality of man and speaks to man in a language 
which he can understand. The rain from above descends 
upon the earth, gradually sinks through the porous soil, 
and eventually finds its way to the fountain whence it 
springs. Now, although gushing forth from the bowels of 
the earth, that water is not “of the earth, earthy,” any 
more than the revealed will of God, which is conveyed to 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 155 


man through human agency. Earth’s deepest springs owe 
their treasures to the skies. The ultimate source of divine 
revelation is the fountain-head of living waters. 

Ezekiel, like the great apostle to the Gentiles, speaks of 
a heavenly vision. He says, “ The heavens were opened 
and I saw visions of God.” ‘To him, God was a present 
spiritual reality. There is a spiritual universe which must 
be reckoned with by every prospective prophet of the 
Lord, if he would speak authoritatively for God. He may 
speak of facts in the spiritual realm, just as surely and 
confidently as the scientist does in the limited sphere of 
natural phenomena. ‘The prophet must have a spiritual 
vision. He must be a seer, capable of seeing some aspect 
of the Infinite One. It is not enough for the ministerial 
candidate to be born in a parsonage or manse. Spiritual 
vision constitutes an essential part of his education. That 
Ezekiel was the son of a priest by no means implied that 
he was endowed forthwith to be the great prophet of the 
exile. Not that we would for one moment minimize the 
cultural advantages of an environment like his, but we do 
assert most emphatically that natural qualifications and 
educational advantages, however important they may be in 
themselves, must be supplemented by visions of God. Of 
all men, those who minister to others in spiritual things 
must first ascend the mountain-top of a great spiritual ex- 
perience before they are qualified to minister to men’s 
deepest needs. The prophetic gift comes to a man as soon 
as he begins to see with the eye of the soul the spiritual 
values of life. Only then will the divine Sovereign of all 
the earth loom up on the spiritual horizon of our life as an 
objective reality. Then only will we be able to pierce the 
very skies with the eagle-eye of faith, the veil of physical 
phenomena will be drawn aside, and we will behold the 
glory of earth’s divine Sovereign seated upon the throne 
of all the universe. God cannot be discovered by human 


156 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


skill and ingenuity. He is revealed to the man with a spir- 
itual capacity, to the man who can see with the eye of 
faith. It was a great moment in Ezekiel’s life when it 
dawned upon his consciousness that God was about to re- 
veal Himself to him. The spiritual meaning of that vision 
could not be seen with the naked eye or grasped with the 
physical senses. That deeper meaning of the vision could 
only unfold itself to an enlarging faith. 

When did the vision come? ‘The prophet’s inaugural 
vision came to him on the.banks of a Euphrates canal dug 
through the alluvial plains of Babylonia. He was a Baby- 
lonian captive, a prisoner of war, if you please, and there- 
fore best qualified to minister to the spiritual needs of his 
fellow countrymen, because he experimentally knows their 
sorrows. He was one of those ten thousand exiles from 
the land of Judah, whom God had sent into exile for their 
own good. -This catastrophic and crushing experience was 
to work together for good to them that have eyes to see 
the purport and meaning of deprivation and suffering inci- 
dental to the solitude and quiet of exilic pursuits. The ad- 
vantages of the captivity far outweigh the stern discipline 
of adversity and of national isolation. The glorious vis- | 
ions of this captive prophet alone are worth the captivity. 
Though a captive himself, he was the freest man in all that 
sad, dejected multitude, because he was spiritually free to 
walk in realms not subject to the passing whims of a po- 
litical conqueror. The captivity, moreover, meant the end 
of the old religious nationalism. The Hebrew exiles now 
realized as never before that God’s sway extended even to 
Babylonia, and that He was the God of all the universe. 
Not that this truth was entirely new, but to the conscious- 
ness of the exiles it had never become so real as now. 
They were to learn the practical truth that God’s sphere 
of activity was not to be confined to the land of promise, 
but that all nations were to be included in God’s all- 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 157 


embracing plan of salvation and that they, as members of 
the chosen race, must ultimately go forth to all the world 
as the missionaries of a world-conquering God. 

What was it that Ezekiel saw? He saw the almighty 
Sovereign sitting upon the throne of the universe and rul- 
ing all things according to His will. God is supreme; He 
is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Nothing es- 
capes the all-seeing eye of God’s active sovereignty. What 
folly, therefore, for men to attempt to legislate earth’s 
active Sovereign out of His universe by the supposed im- 
mutability of the laws of nature! Let us beware of the 
would-be scientist who is prone to take a negative attitude 
toward religion, because of an exaggeration on his part of 
the findings of the physical sciences. A vision of the spir- 
itual Sovereign of the universe presupposes some spiritual 
capacity to which God may reveal Himself. Only to a 
spiritually-minded man can God become an ever-present 
fact, for the God-consciousness is a fact of religious ex- 
perience and in no wise dependent upon the chemical reac- 
tion of the testing tube or of the crucible. 

What we need in our own day is a vision of the en- 
throned divine Sovereign. Only too often is the active 
sovereignty of God lost sight of, particularly by college- 
bred men and women, who make entirely too much of sec- 
ondary causes, so that little or no room is found in their 
thinking for a sovereign Deity. Others are too busy with 
their own selfish plans and ambitions ever to think of the 
sovereign claims of God upon the lives of His subjects. 
They do not know what it means to be conscious of God’s 
presence, nor have they ever developed anything like a 
social consciousness, Not so Ezekiel. To him a vision of 
the divine Sovereign involves certain practical implications 
which he cannot escape. If God is his Sovereign it fol- 
lows that he must obey the divine will; he cannot do other- 
wise, for to receive a command from God was at once to 


158 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


perform it. What would happen if men and women of 
today were to draw the same conclusion? The kingdom of 
God would come with irresistible power because it would 
be ushered in by the omnipotence of the world’s great Sov- 
ereign at the head of an army of loyal and obedient sub- 
jects. If we took the divine command in all seriousness 
there would be no. dearth of men for the ministry, for 
every young Ezekiel would rush to the colours of our 
great Sovereign, exclaiming, “Speak, Lord, and I will 
obey instantly! Ah, Lord, Thou hast spoken by prophets 
and apostles and most emphatically by Him who was obe- 
dient unto death. No longer will I be disobedient to the 
heavenly vision. Henceforth Thy word of command shall 
be the law of my life. Thy will shall be my will.” We 
need to recover the sense of God’s sovereignty, so that it 
may become a potent force in our lives, governing our 
aspirations and motives and bringing into complete sub- 
jection our will to the will of Him that sitteth upon the 
throne of the universe. 

To our prophet, God is the one great outstanding fact 
of the universe. He is no absentee God, who remains un- 
touched by the crushing experiences and heart-pangs of 
the Hebrew exiles, but an ever-present, a living, working, 
all-powerful God, actively engaged in directing, overruling 
and shaping the affairs of nations and of men. The course 
of human history is determined by His sovereign will. That 
part of the nation is in exile is no proof of the weakness 
of Jehovah and of His inability to help a small hard- 
pressed minority against the overwhelming odds of the 
Assyrian army. The fortunes of the nation are intimately 
bound up with God’s definite plan and purpose. The exile 
is the result of rebellion against God and of a wilful breach 
of the covenant. The Assyrian is the rod of God’s puni- 
tive anger. The Hebrews-are about to reap what they had 
sown. Under the circumstances, the approaching doom of 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 159 


the Judean remnant is inevitable. Six years after the call 
of Ezekiel the nation ceased to exist and the temple was in 
ruins. The fulfilment of this part of the historical process 
had been expected by the prophet, because he had foreseen 
it from the very beginning of his ministry. And he now 
bends his energy to the task of reconstruction. There is 
disclosed to his prophetic gaze a restoration program of 
most magnificent proportions, in which God is to be all in 
all. In the ideal commonwealth of the future the blessed 
truth of the sovereignty of God is to be vitalized and re- 
stored to its rightful place in the practical affairs of every- 
day life. The exiles have yet to learn the practical truth 
that God rules and governs the world and not Assyria. 
Israel’s ultimate destiny is not at the mercy of a big mili- 
tary machine. The arm of flesh, in the long run, cannot 
prevail against a sovereign Deity. We want a new grip 
on this mighty fact, for the whole world seems to be sub- 
scribing to the atheism of force, whether military or eco- 
nomic. In spite of the many war-slogans that were used 
and the claims that were made by certain prophets that the 
principle of force could be destroyed by a resort to arms, 
the world in which we live is still, even after the Great 
War, the same old world at heart with all its selfishness, 
greed, covetousness, petty jealousy and hatred. 

There is no room for God in the reconstruction program 
of our leading politicians. It is worth noting that in 
Ezekiel’s restoration program God is the pivotal centre, 
around which everything revolves. He is the very heart 
and core of it, the one great controlling factor without 
whom there can be no adequate program of any kind, In 
the reconstruction program drawn up more recently God 
is conspicuously absent. It contains numerous economic 
clauses, but it certainly cannot be said to be theocentric, as 
was that document which was drawn up twenty-five hun- 
dred years ago by a prophet who saw deeper than our 


160 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


modern economists with their economic panaceas for the 
ills of society. ‘There is much to dishearten us, and the 
man who looks out on the world with its scheming expo- 
nents of pagan politics, its armies and fleets all ready at the 
first signal to deal out death and destruction, might well 
despair, were it not for the conviction that the divine Sov- 
ereign is still on His throne, and that if the onward march 
of history is impeded and interrupted by the madness and 
blindness of men, He will know how to bring His govern- 
ment of the world to a.glorious consummation. 

Ezekiel, in his inaugural vision, also sees the roll of a 
book which he is commanded to eat. “Open thy mouth 
and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, a 
hand was sent unto me; and lo, a roll of a book was 
therein; and He spread it before me; and it was written 
within and without.” Of course, the eating process, here 
alluded to, was to be understood in a figurative sense. If 
the young priest is to become a prophet and preach to 
others, he must first of all digest the contents of that 
written scroll, for it goes without saying that he ought to 
know the message which he is to deliver. A superficial 
acquaintance with his message is not enough. ‘True, the 
efficacy of the message is not dependent upon the worthi- 
ness of the messenger. A man may impart light to others 
who does not himself see or follow the light; and God in 
His sovereign mercy may bless others by one who is him- 
self unblessed. But experience proves that it is what 
comes from the heart of the preacher that reaches the. 
heart of his hearers. He himself must be on fire with his 
message, if he would set others on fire. The truth of that 
message must have burned itself into his very soul and 
become part and parcel of his spiritual life. The message 
itself should be not merely on his lips but in his heart. 
This will lend force and conviction to his words. Mere 
verbal knowledge of the Bible will not suffice. The 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 161 


preacher may study the meaning of texts, he may delight in 
historical and geographical allusions and show an arche- 
ological interest in the people of the Book, and yet his 
soul and the souls of his hearers may starve for want of 
that spiritual food which can be found only by inward 
assimilation and appropriation. All these literary helps 
and sidelights must be vitalized and energized by the sun- 
light of a heart-experience of religion, supplemented by 
the maturing process of meditation and by a sincere and 
earnest endeavour to apply in one’s every-day life the 
burning truths which have taken possession of the inner 
man. ‘The prospective preacher must receive, learn, in- 
wardly digest, appropriate the truth and embody it in his 
life, so that he may become a true “living epistle, known 
and read of all men.” 

He ought to be a man of the Book. God pity the man 
who finds the task of preparation irksome. The words of 
the written scroll, we are told, were pleasant to the 
prophet’s taste. We, too, if we do not already possess it, 
need to develop a taste for the Book of books. The 
mentally inert have no idea what rare delights they are 
missing by feeding upon the husks of literature, when they 
might sit down with the prophets and apostles to a royal 
feast prepared in honour of the King’s Son. What a noble 
company! These prophets and apostles have made an in- 
finitely greater contribution to the world’s progress than all 
the philosophers and scientists put together. To live in 
their companionship and learn to see their visions is a rare 
privilege indeed. The Bible opens up to us an inexhaust- 
ible library of the finest and richest literature in the world. 
Think of the scope and immensity of its themes! Think 
of the intellectual, moral and spiritual stimulus that is to 
be found in dealing with such majestic themes as God and 
man, sin and salvation, the means of grace, the Church, the 
ministry, a world-embracing brotherhood of Christian be- 


162 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


lievers, the immortality of the soul, things present and 
things to come. What can compare with the range of 
thought to which the ministerial student is invited? This 
constitutes one of the chief attractions of the ministry. 
The theological student preparing for the ministry may 
have for his daily food meat of unsurpassed sweetness and 
drink at the Biblical fountain which is as deep as eternity 
and yet so readily accessible that even a child may drink 
thereof and be refreshed. Here is the only effective pana- 
cea for the ills and sins of a desperately selfish race. The 
world will be saved, not by the economic programs of 
atheistic prophets, but by God and His Word alone, which 
emphasizes the idea of sacrificial service. 

What was the effect of the vision upon the prophet? 
He fell upon his face in the presence of this august mani- 
festation of the Deity. If it is true that the idea of the 
absolute sovereignty of God has little, if any, practical 
bearing upon the affairs of men and of nations, it is no less 
true that in our modern life we have to a large extent lost 
the sense of religious awe, of reverence and of godly fear. 
The familiarity of some with holy things borders on irrev- 
erence and flippancy in religion. It will be a great day for 
the Church when her youth shall have regained once more 
that deep and abiding sense of adoring awe and religious 
reverence in God’s presence. If only our young people had 
an adequate conception of God and would think of Him 
not merely as a loving Father but also as the enthroned 
Sovereign, much might be gained for the cause of true re- 
ligion. In that event, an increasing number of young 
Ezekiels could be found in the Church, bending the knee 
and humbling their proud hearts before the Almighty 
while awaiting His word of command. May our young 
men become increasingly conscious of God’s greatness and 
majesty and of their insignificance and utter dependence 
upon Him. How infinitely greater is the Creator than the 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 163 


creature, the duration of whose breath is entirely depend- 
ent upon the divine Potter! 

How infinite, too, is the distance between divine Om- 
nipotence and human impotence! Ezekiel had no difficulty 
in discovering the contrast. The vision impresses him 
with his own weakness and limitations. This is brought 
out in the oft-recurring title, employed by Jehovah in ad- 
dressing the prophet. In His sovereign presence he is 
simply ‘a son of man.” This term of address, it will be 
noted, occurs no less than one hundred and sixteen times 
in the book of E\zekiel and is always used by Jehovah Him- 
self. Like Isaiah in the temple, Ezekiel is humble enough 
to identify himself completely with his people. He is only 
a fellow exile, a creature of the dust, who can do nothing 
great or small without that spiritual quickening which God 
vouchsafes to him on the plains of Babylonia. 

Young man, whatever thy name, thou art “a son of 
man.” ‘The prophet’s title applies to you also. If that is 
so and you possess the qualities of a normal.man, you 
ought to show just cause why you should refuse to lend a 
ready ear to the prophetic call. Have you been standing 
idly by in the market-place, because you have never felt 
that inner urge which comes to a man when he begins to 
feel the logic of some definite phase of divine truth in its 
relation to a life of sacrificial service? You say, God has 
not been calling for workers, when men are dying by the 
millions for want of the gospel, and when the need for 
more workers is so great? What a libel upon God’s char- 
acter! Son of man, you must be blind to the fact that God 
works through sons of men, like you and me. Can you 
continue to excuse your shirking inertia, when the Al- 
mighty is calling you into His service? What infinite con- 
descension on the part of God to appeal to frail mortals, 
like ourselves, to recruit and augment the ranks of the 
standard-bearers of the cross! It is no small honour to be 


164 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


an active co-labourer with God. The gospel calls you. 
Will you bow in humility before your Maker and acknowl- 
edge His sovereign claim upon your God-given life? You 
are only a man, a creature of the dust, and yet, though 
nothing in or of yourself, God calls you. The Master hath 
need of you. Vast multitudes of a sin-cursed race are 
dying in their sins. Though every minister had the cour- 
age of an Elijah or of a John the Baptist and could preach 
like the divine Prophet of Nazareth; though every mis- 
sionary were a St. Paul, the work of a world-wide evan- 
gelization is greater than they alone could perform. That 
God’s kingdom may come in power, sons of men are 
needed in increasing numbers. Recruits must come from 
all ranks of society—from the house of Levi and of 
Aaron, from the parsonage and manse, from the farm- 
house and city home, from halls of priestly learning and 
from the common people, from the common school, high 
school, college, university, and theological seminary; in a 
word, from all walks of life. Ministerial talent is not con- 
fined to any particular class. It often lies buried under the 
crust of circumstances like hidden gold and uncut dia- 
monds in the bowels of the earth. Our task is to unearth 
and discover it by turning upon it the penetrating search- 
light of God’s truth, and thus lead to greater consecration 
on the part of the sons of men. 

Finding in Ezekiel complete submission to the divine 
will, God empowers him to do the work to which he is 
called. Though nothing in himself, though weak and frail 
in comparison with his supreme Sovereign, Ezekiel is to go 
forth to his arduous task in the strength of the Almighty. 
The man who believes he is sent on a mission by divine 
Omnipotence is always a strong person, for he goes forth 
not in his own strength but in the strength of God’s Word. 
The source of the prophet’s strength is indicated by the 
well-known formula, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,” 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 165 


which is used by him over a hundred times. On every oc- 
casion he is to speak in the name of the King of heaven 
and earth. When God sends forth a man to arduous 
service, He always says, “I will help thee; yea, I will 
strengthen thee. Speak unto them and tell them, Thus 
and thus saith Jehovah, whether they will hear or whether 
they will forbear. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at 
their looks, though they be a rebellious house.’”’ ‘The bat- 
tle which he is to wage is not his, but God’s. And so there 
is imparted to the prophet the necessary courage and hero- 
ism by the transforming power of God’s Word. If the 
Hebrew exiles show a brazen and impudent face and a 
callous heart, the prophet will meet their flint-like counte- 
nances with a forehead of the hardest steel, for the Word 
of God is sharper than any weapon forged on the anvil of 
a rebellious heart. Truth is mightier than error, and the 
strength of allied humanity is as nothing when compared 
with the almighty power of God. There can be no doubt 
about the final outcome of the struggle. What matter if, 
in the course of the conflict, God’s ambassador should be 
severely put to the test by the callousness of the rebels, by 
unfair and malicious criticism, by opposition, threats, and 
open sedition! Let him be firm and unshakable, if he 
would be a leader of men. If he be a true and faithful 
watchman, let him take his stand and fortify himself in the 
watch-tower of divine truth, and see how the battle goes. 
Ere long he will discover to his utter amazement that he 
has found numerous allies in the consciences of many of 
his worst foes, for down in their heart of hearts they have 
a sneaking suspicion that the prophet is right, after all, for 
he is fighting on the side of the God of history. 

The assurance that divine authority is on his side is in 
itself sufficient to make his face and his forehead hard as 
a diamond in the presence of opponents whose only au- 
thority lies in physical force or other earthly means. With 


166 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


this conviction in his soul, Ezekiel could look with confi- 
dence into the future, knowing that the cause of truth and 
righteousness would ultimately prevail. It buoyed him up 
and made him strong. His name was no misnomer. It 
epitomizes the prophet’s theology, and expresses in the 
clearest language what every theological student and every 
“watchman ” needs to learn by experience, and that is, 
that ‘God strengthens.” ‘This explains Ezekiel’s attitude 
toward divine truth in the face of the most determined op- 
position. He would brook no compromise with the enemy 
for the sake of avoiding open hostilities. If he did he 
would forfeit his right to be a prophet. But there is no 
danger, for Ezekiel is not the man to play to the galleries 
by proclaiming pleasant things to itching ears, nor is he 
afraid, like many a weak-kneed prophet of today, to apply 
the logic of eternal truth without fear or favour. For 
there is but one gospel for rich and poor alike. It is not 
for the prophet to change or mar the message by wilful 
subtractions or additions, or what is far more frequent, by 
glossing over certain important truths either because they 
are unpopular or because they might affect one or more 
prominent pew-holders in the church. Of course, we do 
not mean that a prophetic preacher should antagonize, 
without cause, his parishioners by being pugnacious for 
the sake of exemplifying the martial spirit of a fearless 
man. Of ail men, the minister must be a man of tact, both 
in and out of the pulpit. A large measure of hallowed 
common sense will always stand him in good stead. But 
whatever the minister is or ought to be, he cannot afford 
to tamper with truth, for truth is truth, even though the 
heavens fall. Let him, then, be true to his vocation and 
preach the truth and not explain away the truth, so that it 
either loses its force or becomes meaningless. While he is 
to preach the truth in love, may he never forget that God’s 
love is tempered by His sovereign justice. Let him re- 


THE CALL OF EZEKIEL 167 


member that he is above all else a watchman who is to 
watch over souls as one who must give account unto God 
and sound the alarm, whenever necessary. “I have set 
thee for a watchman; thou shalt hear the word from My 
mouth and warn them for Me.” What a responsibility is 
his! Well might he despair, were it not for the glorious 
fact that God is his strength. He has too keen a sense of 
the sovereignty of God to withhold obedience to the divine 
command. However difficult the task, the Word of God 
is a tower of strength in every emergency. It inspires the 
messenger and sustains him in his work. It enables the 
under-shepherd to feel that whilst he is keeping watch 
over the flock, the Shepherd of Israel is ever by his side. 
It is a never-failing weapon. It is a very necessary part 
of our spiritual equipment. Thus equipped, “I can do all 
things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” He gives 
power commensurate with every duty. 


IX 
THE CALL OF JONAH 
Jonau 1, 3, 4 


FE, now come to the call of Jonah, the first foreign 

missionary of the old dispensation. The birth- 

place of the son of Amittai is said to have been 
Gath-Hepher, a village in the tribe of Zebulun, about an 
hour’s walk north of Nazareth (II Kings 14:25). Our 
present interest is not in the date of the book, nor are we 
much concerned with the theories that have been advanced 
with respect to its interpretation. From a practical point 
of view, all this is of little consequence. What we are in- 
terested in is the message of the book itself, emphasizing 
more particularly those features of the book which stand 
in some relation to the call of Jonah. 

As in the case of Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah and others, no 
mention is made of an appearance of Jehovah. “ The 
word of Jehovah came unto Jonah, the son of Amittat, 
saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out 
against it, for their wickedness is come up before Me. But 
Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish.” ‘The reality of the call in 
this case may be judged from its effect upon Jonah’s con- 
duct. It took him completely by surprise as may be seen 
from the suddenness of his flight. The first word he hears 
is “ Arise.’ That was a summons to immediate action. 
He must gird up his loins and go immediately. But why 
this haste? Remember, Jonah, “ Yet forty. days and Nine- 
veh shall be destroyed ” (3:4). The sins of the wicked 
city are crying for vengeance to high heaven itself. But, 


168 


THE CALL OF JONAH 169 


Jonah, have you no sense of direction? Why go west 
when you ought to go east? Surely you are not afraid to 
preach unpleasant truths at the command of God! A real 
prophet, Jonah, knows no fear. But, Jonah, why take to 
your heels in flight? On and on he goes down to Joppa, a 
Mediterranean seaport, and after paying his fare, he takes 
ship for the distant west, only to be overtaken by a storm 
and thrown into the sea by the terror-stricken sailors, 
where he is swallowed by a great fish which, on the third 
day, casts him forth uninjured upon the land. Hereupon 
he receives a second command to go to Nineveh. Though 
retaining his former prejudices, this time he obeys, be- 
cause he realizes that a man cannot rebel with impunity 
against God’s will and that it is sheer folly for anyone 
even to attempt to evade his divinely appointed destiny. 
Jonah, unlike Ezekiel, had no overpowering sense of 
God’s sovereignty, otherwise he would not have tried to 
escape the unwelcome task of preaching to a heathen peo- 
ple. A true prophet is a man who speaks for God unques- 
tioningly, conscious all the while that the sovereign will of 
God is the ultimate reason behind every prophetic utter- 
ance. The will of God’s messenger must coalesce with 
that of the God of heaven and earth. When a man’s will 
has once been disciplined to prefer the divine will to his 
own, there is little, if any, room for fretful questioning, 
even in the face of an unpleasant task. Whatever may 
have been Jonah’s theoretical beliefs, he could hardly have 
had, to judge from his subsequent acts, a compelling sense 
of the sovereign might and universal supremacy of the 
Author of his message. He rebels at the very thought of 
becoming a prophet to the Gentiles. If he had yielded 
self-will and said, God wills it! God wills it! he would not 
have endeavoured to escape from the duty divinely laid 
upon him. Did he prefer the wisdom of an earth-born 
worm to that of the Almighty? Did he say to himself, 


170 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Why go to Nineveh when Israel needed all the prophets 
she could get? Does not charity begin at home? When 
he finally did go to Nineveh, he did his work there after 
the manner of a man who had been driven to it by the 
force of outer circumstances. He did not breathe the re- 
gal atmosphere of an Isaiah, volunteering for service at the 
call of his sovereign Lord. Ah, yes; but there is a differ- 
ence here. Isaiah was called to be a prophet to his own 
people and to console his contemporaries by prophesying 
the downfall of many of the surrounding nations. How 
gladly Jonah would have done that! And as it was the 
duty of a Hebrew prophet to include in his prophecies 
other nations also, what Jewish patriot would have re- 
fused to hurl his prophetic maledictions and anathemas at 
the hated world-power along the Tigris and Euphrates, 
ever threatening and assailing the independence of Jeho- 
vah’s people? 

But Jonah is to go and preach to Nineveh itself. That, 
in the prophet’s mind, alters the whole situation. It is one 
thing to predict the fall of Nineveh while prophesying on 
Israelitish soil and quite another thing to go directly to 
Nineveh and perform the work of a prophet. The down- 
fall of Nineveh, if predicted by a prophet who confined 
his activity to Israel, necessarily involved the fulfilment of 
the announced doom, since no prophet could be found in 
all the land who would be willing, for patriotic reasons, to 
deliver that message in person for fear that the dreaded 
Ninevites might repent upon hearing the message and be 
saved. Jonah’s refusal to go to Nineveh was not due to 
cowardice, but to his knowledge of the merciful and com- 
passionate nature of Jehovah, as he himself admits in the 
fourth chapter of the book, “ Ah now, Jehovah, was not 
my word, when I was yet in my own country, at the time I 
made ready to flee to Tarshish, this that I knew that Thou 
art a God gracious and tender and long-suffering, plente- 


THE CALL OF JONAH 171 


ous in love and prone to forgive?”’ He knew from God’s 
dealings with Israel in the past (Ex. 34:6) that this char- 
acteristic of Jehovah might assert itself with respect to 
Nineveh, should the inhabitants thereof repent. It was not 
that Jonah lacked courage, for no real prophet would 
shrink from a journey of several hundred miles which 
such a task involved. But one thing he simply could not 
understand, and that was, why God should be merciful to 
Nineveh, this proud and arrogant, this unmercifully cruel 
and wicked city on the banks of the Tigris. The Assyrian 
capital was Israel’s worst foe potentially and in a very real 
sense. Would not the political policy of the imperial city 
jeopardize the very existence of Israel’s religion by an 
attempt on the part of the conquerors to impose their gods 
upon the conquered races? Let Nineveh perish! Let 
others go to Nineveh if they like, but as for him he will 
not prove a traitor to his own people Israel. Blinded by a 
godless patriotism and by a narrow-minded, self-centred 
nationalism, Jonah would rather put the Mediterranean 
Sea between him and the fulfilment of his unwelcome task. 
He will do nothing to further the spiritual interests of his 
country’s mortal enemy. His miraculous rescue from the 
briny deep did not in the least change his feeling in the 
matter. All the while he was delivering his message there 
was a wretched undertone of fear that God’s forgiving 
love might transcend the national borders of Israel. 
Although he himself has just profited by the divine mercy, 
he complains when that same mercy is about to be ex- 
tended to the people of Nineveh as if the sphere of God’s 
active interest on earth had to limit itself forever to a 
numerically insignificant nation, 

How inconsistent and unreasonable he was is shown by 
his attitude toward the withered gourd vine, in whose 
shade he had found relief from the burning rays of a 
scorching Assyrian sun. It was only a wild, ephemeral 


172 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


plant of rapid growth with large leaves upon which he had 
expended no labour nor had he done anything to make it 
grow, and yet when it suddenly perished he was full of 
pity for it. And God said to Jonah, “ Art thou so very 
angry about the gourd? And he said, I am very angry, 
even unto death! And Jehovah said, Thou carest for a 
gourd for which thou hast not laboured, nor hast thou 
brought it up, a thing that came up in a night and in a 
night has perished. And should I not spare Nineveh, that 
great city, wherein are more than twelve times ten thou- 
sand human beings who know not their right hand from 
their left, besides much cattle?’ What a contrast between 
a gourd and a hundred and twenty thousand infants and 
herds of dumb-driven cattle! Such an argument is unan- 
swerable. The prophet is speechless; he has learned his 
lesson, namely, that God, who is the Creator of all things, 
has compassion even on the heathen who repent of their 
sins. If men anywhere repent and turn from their evil 
ways, God will ward off the threatened punishment. 

We have seen that the underlying motive for Jonah’s 
act of disobedience sprang from his fear of the extension 
of God’s mercy to the Ninevites. Other motives of a su- 
bordinate character may have precipitated his flight. It 
may be that the human equation is partly to blame for the 
course of events. Had he thought to himself, What would 
his people, what would the Ninevites, think of him, if his 
prophecy remained unfulfilled? For who can tell but that 
a merciful and compassionate God might spare the city, 
and thus nullify the prophet’s message? Was he of the 
opinion that the event which he predicted ought to come 
to pass, if he was not to return to Israel a discredited 
prophet? Did he really think that the divine law ought to 
be analogous to the laws of the Medes and Persians? If 
so, he failed to realize that prophecy is conditional, and 
that a threatened destruction can be averted by repentance 


THE CALL OF JONAH 173 


without in any wise reflecting upon the prophet’s reputa- 
tion. It would be most humiliating to think that the ques- 
tion of one’s reputation as a prophet could stand in the 
way of men’s salvation, or that any man could be so self- 
centred as to desire the destruction of heathen multitudes 
as a credential of his prophetic office. We rather prefer to 
think that Jonah’s disinclination to preach to the Ninevites 
had its origin in national prejudices and narrow religious 
sympathies relative to Israel’s prophetic mission to all 
nations. As a Hebrew patriot he did not like the task of 
becoming a foreign missionary to Nineveh, the proud mis- 
tress of the world. But, as previously remarked, he 
finally went under compulsion, fully expecting the literal 
fulfilment of his prophecy. 

And so Jonah, the patriot, sat down outside the city in 
order to witness the destruction of the Assyrian capital. 
Seeing the city spared, he is extremely displeased at the 
seeming failure of his mission. But had he really failed? 
The people of Nineveh, we are told, believed God and re- 
pented in sackcloth and ashes. Poor man that he was to 
be blind to the fact that he was to see the highest success 
of his preaching, not in the earthquake or the political 
overthrow of the city, but in the destruction of the city’s 
accumulated wickedness by the fires of a repentance which 
had been kindled on the altar of a living faith! The suc- 
cess of his mission to Nineveh is to be measured by the 
moral effect which his predictions had produced upon the 
hearts and minds of his hearers. A city might be laid 
waste by an earthquake or by a thunderbolt forged on the 
anvil of the elemental forces of nature, but such a phys- 
ical change is not to be compared for a moment with the 
refining fire of the love of a merciful and gracious God 
which consumes the base alloy of sin. The proclamation 
of divine mercy is the most powerful agent in kindling this 
heavenly fire in the silent recesses of the soul. Sin and not 


174 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the sinner must be destroyed, for Jehovah does not desire 
the destruction of the nations, but rather that they should 
turn from their evil way and live. That this might be ac- 
complished is the task of city and rural pastors alike. 
We urbanites boast of our magnificent public works, our 
fine boulevards, parks and art galleries, our public build- 
ings, palatial homes and skyscrapers, our commercial im- 
portance, our wealth, luxury, refinement and means of en- 
joyment, without often saying a word about the crying 
evils of modern city life, of its vice and unspeakable moral 
filth. Think of the wickedness, the untold selfishness and 
avarice of many a so-called model citizen, the hypocrisy 
and irreligion, stalking along our city streets and boule- 
vards under the garb of respectability and lifting up its 
serpentine head in the slum district. This cesspool of 
moral filth is politely overlooked by the statistician or poli- 
tician, by the rank and file of our citizenry and oh, the 
agony of it, by many a man who poses as a prophet, but 
who lacks the courage of his convictions. The city 
preacher of today has substantially the same charge as 
Jonah had. Those of us who have a conscience in the 
matter feel at times that there is too little of this frank 
and fearless treatment of moral and social corruption. If 
the man in the pulpit is a prophetic preacher, then let him 
discharge his prophetic function by crying out against 
every form of wickedness and warn the citizens of the 
ruin they are bringing upon themselves and upon their 
families. Languid and effeminate whispers will not wake 
sleeping sinners. ‘The preacher is a watchman, crying in 
the night of men’s sins against the religious indifference 
and defiant infidelity of those who seem to forget that 
nothing escapes God’s all-seeing eye. Woe to any city in 
which the voice of prophecy slurs over the declaration of 
divine wrath upon the sin and guilt of its inhabitants. 
Jonah, with all his national exclusiveness and bigotry, is 


THE CALL OF JONAH 175 


to be preferred to such voices. Yes, the prophetic preacher 
must go into the wicked Ninevehs and Babylons both at 
home and abroad and tell them that they will be destroyed, 
unless they repent of their wickedness and live. It is well 
to remember, however, that the sternness of the message 
should in every case be tempered with heavenly mercy, so 
that the repentance which follows may be rooted not in 
fear but in love to a forgiving and gracious God. 

But Jonah’s task is no easy one. His path is constantly 
beset with difficulties and irritating perplexities. There 
was not only the raging tempest on the Mediterranean Sea, 
but there was also that withered gourd outside the city of 
Nineveh. One feels almost disposed to smile at the seem- 
ing anti-climax, were it not for the somewhat embarrass- 
ing discovery that the picture is true to life. Toa fretful 
prophet, life at times becomes quite irksome, not so much 
in consequence of raging tempests and real hardships, but 
more especially on account of the disappointment and dis- 
content that arises from mere trifles. As a matter of fact, 
men are powerfully affected by the withered gourds of life. 
How provoking to think, for example, that the work of 
the ministry has not made it possible for a man to lay by 
anything for a “rainy day,” thus leaving not only himself 
but also the members of his family exposed to the blasting 
east winds of adversity or to the gushing downpour of 
“the latter rains.” While the average business man is liv- 
ing in luxury, comparatively speaking, and counting his 
gourds by the thousands, yea, hundreds of thousands, he 
has to count his by the tens or hundreds. This—it might 
be remarked parenthetically—is one of the reasons why 
many young men look with disfavour on the ministry as a 
life calling. 

Then, too, how exasperating to think that the average 
business man is not his intellectual equal, many of these 
so-called self-made men priding themselves on the fact 


176 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


that they have never seen the inside of a college or even of 
a high school. They have been cultivating gourds and 
storing them away in their barns for future use, while they 
have been gathering souls for the garners of the heavenly 
kingdom. Ah, yes; all this is true, only too true. And yet, 
be it remembered that the prophet of today, although he 
still reaps a prophet’s reward in comparison with the eco- 
nomic returns that come to other men, need not be in want 
of the necessaries of life, nor of a place where he may lay 
his head. One of the.more hopeful signs of the times is 
that with the rise in the cost of living many of our min- 
isters are recelving a proportionate increase in salary. 
Such congregations are to be highly commended. ‘Their 
example is most refreshing to the prophet with his lonely 
gourd, which withers away from month to month; it also 
has a beneficent effect upon the source of our ministerial 
supply. It is to be hoped that other congregations, which 
have kept their ministers “ poor and humble” all along, 
may develop a keener sense of stewardship, so that the 
wings of prophetic inspiration may not be broken by un- 
due worriment over an insufficient income. Why should 
the church-goer multiply his gourds at the expense of the 
minister of the gospel, when the work of the latter is just 
as important to society, if not infinitely more important in 
every way, particularly as a stabilizing social, moral and 
religious factor. 

But, brethren, we must go deeper. We must go to the 
heart of the matter, for a man’s life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things which he possesseth. A man may 
count his “ gourds ” by the millions and yet be the unhap- 
piest man in the world. God pity the man who flees to 
Tarshish for the sake of making his mark in the world 
and who, when he has found a place among the successful 
business men of Tarshish, begins to preach the “ gospel of 
getting on,” which prosperous worldlings are continually 


THE CALL OF JONAH 177 


preaching! The storm is sure to break sometime or other 
upon every Jonah who in early youth felt that inner urge, 
after the word of the Lord had come to him, to enter the 
ministry, but somehow he sought to evade the awful re- 
sponsibility of preaching to the ‘‘ Ninevites ” by embark- 
ing on another career full of promise economically and 
socially. In his better moments he knows that he is a 
despicable renegade with the heart of a Judas, which is 
shrivelling up for want of obedience to God’s will. He is 
one of the men who have been hiding behind the stuff dur- 
ing the heat of the Lord’s battle in the great city. In the 
meantime he may have acquired great wealth, but if he has 
rebelled against the word of the Lord, which came to him 
in his youth, he has lost his soul. And what will he give 
to the Owner of the universe in exchange for his soul? 
Not so the minister of the gospel who has found the secret 
of real, abiding happiness in the faithful performance of 
his God-given duty. Let no one think that he can cultivate 
gourds and be happy in so doing, when there has come to 
him in early youth the word of the Lord to go to heathen 
Nineveh and preach the gospel. In that event the work of 
a foreign missionary is infinitely more important than that 
of a business man engaged, let us say, in home and foreign 
trade. To say that some men are better off cultivating 
gourds or growing potatoes than they would be in the min- 
istry is mere quibbling. Whether a man should be a mis- 
sionary is settled beyond a peradventure by the prophetic 
call. Potential prophets are running away from God, like 
Jonah ; excuses for going to Tarshish may be many, valid 
reasons there can be none, when God calls. 

What is a call to a prophetic ministry in the light of the 
call of Jonah? It is the call of duty from on high in the 
hour of need, when men’s souls are perishing for want of 
spiritual enlightenment. How dangerous it is to disobey 
the divine call may be seen from the book of Jonah. God’s 


178 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


will must be done in the end. A man may just as well 
make up his mind to do it first as last. As a remedy for 
procrastination, learn to regard duty as the sovereign com- 
mand of God. A potential prophet may go down to Joppa 
in the endeavour to escape his divinely appointed duty. 
He may go up in the scale of social and economic success, 
and yet morally and spiritually his act of disobedience to 
God may necessitate his going down to the very depths of 
despair. Therefore, young man, beware! Let Jonah’s 
punishment suffice as a warning without attempting to imi- 
tate his act of rebellion against the divine mandate. So far 
as you are concerned, that mandate may take the form of 
the still small voice of conscience, speaking to a Scripture- 
illumined mind and heart. You need no audible voice to 
point out to you the path of duty at a time when millions 
of human beings in foreign lands are just as desperately in 
need of God’s Word as were the ancient Ninevites. 

But, alas, for modern Nineveh! God’s word of com- 
mand has gone forth, saying to all Christians, “Go ye into 
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 
But there in the pew sits Jonah with a set of preconceived 
opinions and petty prejudices relative to the conversion of 
the heathen. He is one of those who begrudge the 
prophet’s fare, not to the city of Tarshish, with its foreign 
trade and commercial advantages, but to heathen Nineveh. 
Jonah is saying, There is work to do at home, for “ charity 
begins at home,” without realizing that there is no valid 
reason why his much-talked-of “ charity ” should not ex- 
ceed his provincial borders, if it is of the right sort. But 
for some reason, best known to himself, he is an ardent 
advocate of foreign trade. His slogan is, Send to them 
our goods,—the products of our mines and steel mills, our 
oil and agricultural products, but let them pay for our 
goods in good gold. The spirit of a cold-blooded commer- 
cialism cries out like one of old, “‘ Why this waste! Why 


THE CALL OF JONAH 179 


send missionaries to the heathen and spend so much money 
for intangible results? ”’ This attitude toward foreign mis- 
sions on the part of our modern Jonahs reminds us of the 
spirit of the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal 
Son. The elder brother, you will remember, looks on sul- 
lenly, because he is thinking of the commercial value of his 
patrimony. Since the younger brother has already re- 
ceived and squandered his share of the estate, the new 
robe, the ring, the fatted calf, in short, this feast of restor- 
ing love means so much less for him when the final divi- 
sion is made. Why restore the vagabond spendthrift, even 
though he should repent, saying, “Father, forgive !— 
Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” 

Israel, according to the book of Jonah, is the elder 
brother. The people, blinded by selfishness and national 
exclusiveness, were saying, Jehovah’s blessings are for us. 
We are of the seed of Abraham; we belong to the chosen 
race. Ah, yes; but Israel, the elder brother, must share 
this spiritual heritage with the heathen, for they, too, have 
a capacity for religious truth, as may be seen from the re- 
pentance of the Ninevites. But for centuries the people 
refused to learn the lesson which the book of Jonah 
teaches. It was the deadly selfish spirit of the elder 
brother that killed whatever missionary effort may have 
been put forth on a large scale. The same spirit persists 
today. In spite of the book of the Acts and the missionary 
chapters that have been written in the nineteenth century, 
men are still saying, Why send missionaries to the ends of 
the earth, when there are so many heathen at home? 
Spend your money on your own people. Think of your 
own local church, make it more beautiful architecturally, 
think of the zsthetic stimulus to devotion; what we need 
is highly artistic stained-glass windows, frescoed walls, a 
marble pulpit, an imported altar, and nice soft cushions 
for our pews. No one, I am sure, will object to architec- 


180 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


tural embellishments, to a beautiful church home and all 
that sort of thing, as long as the claims of a world-wide 
gospel are not overlooked. But does it ever occur to us 
that while many Christians are worshipping in cathedrals 
and beautiful church homes, the gospel is being preached 
to the heathen at some noisy street corner, in a mud-hut, 
or some barn-like structure? What a contrast our poorly 
equipped mission stations present in the foreign field to 
the gorgeous and lavishly adorned temples of the heathen 
gods! There is just as much reason, we think, for beau- 
tiful church buildings on the foreign field as in the home- 
land. The argument boils itself down to this—If the 
penitent prodigal is restored to sonship, why should the 
elder brother make a distinction? But, after all, it is not 
so much a question of physical equipment, of robes, rings, 
and fatted calves as it is of a right attitude of the heart 
toward our heathen brethren, whether at home or abroad. 
I am my brother’s keeper. I must bring him to the 
Father’s house, so that the Father of all mercy may cover 
up his sins by putting upon him heaven’s own vestments— 
a robe of righteousness. That is my missionary obligation 
to the heathen. 

But, unfortunately, it is the spirit of the elder brother 
and of the unmerciful servant that bars the approach to 
heaven’s gate. “ O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all 
that debt, because thou desiredst Me; shouldest not thou 
also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I 
had pity on thee?” There is an attitude of indifference 
toward the perishing on the part of money-hardened and 
provincially-minded believers. The question of their sal- 
vation gets mixed up with their narrow provincialism of 
thought toward others, especially toward the heathen. 
Self-interest, whether on the part of the individual or of 
the national group, is preferred to the salvation of immor- 
tal souls. Jonah’s reluctance to do the work of a foreign 


THE CALL OF JONAH 181 


missionary ought to be a warning to ourselves, who are 
entrusted, as he was, with a mission to heathen men. His 
punishment for declining to discharge that mission points 
with singular irony to the fate of the Hebrew nation of 
which he was a part. In the course of their checkered 
history they were taken captive by the very nations they 
should have captivated and conquered by the transforming 
power of Israel’s religion. 

Over us, too, as a church, over America as a nation to 
which God has given unprecedented resources for evangel- 
izing the world, similar judgments may be impending un- 
less we clearly recognize our stewardship and discharge 
our missionary duty to mankind. If the Christian forces 
of America fail to do their duty in this regard the nations 
of the Orient may sweep ere long like a terrible scourge 
not only over our own land but also over Europe. If we 
are in possession of the true religion, it follows that the 
“American melting pot ” has a duty to perform in helping 
to evangelize the nations of the earth. Religion spells op- 
portunity, duty, obligation; it is a trust; it is not ours to 
keep. Its efficacy and power increases by sharing it with 
others. By limiting its use to ourselves we lose it and in 
the end lose our own souls. In our day and age God signs 
no special treaty clauses with any favoured nation, for He 
is the God of Jew and Gentile alike. Even way back in 
the hoary past, God selects Israel in order that the chosen 
race might become the torch-bearer of salvation to the 
Gentile world. 

The book of Jonah, then, is a plea for foreign missions. 
It emphasizes the universality of the divine plan of salva- 
tion and the missionary obligation of Israel to the Gentiles. 
It seeks to enlarge the religious sympathies of a people 
elected and chosen of God to carry the message of repen- 
tance to the heathen. The missionary ideas, embodied in 
the book, give expression to the religious idealism fre- 


182 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


quently met with in other parts of the Old Testament, 
especially in prophetic literature. But, unfortunately, the 
missionary ideals of Israel’s seers, prophets and spiritual 
teachers were reduced, for the most part, to the realm of 
theory. The missionary lesson, which the book of Jonah 
teaches, led to no practical recognition of the world-calling 
of a nation of potential missionaries. There is a wide gap 
between the call of the first foreign missionary and the 
Acts of the Apostles. Even Jonah was a reluctant 
prophet. This reluctance was even more pronounced 
among the rank and file in Israel. It was not until the 
Messianic age that Israel’s prophetic mission to the world 
was clearly recognized. But even then the same old back- 
ground of human selfishness and national exclusiveness 
persists in one form or another in apostolic times as well 
as in the subsequent history of Christianity. Judaizers 
were never wholly wanting. This anti-missionary party 
was the bane of Paul’s life. Had it not been for the 
powerful influence of the apostle, Christianity might have 
been doomed to an insignificant Jewish sect. In general, 
Christians have been slow to obey the Great Commission. 
Happily, some have dared to do their full Christian duty 
in the face of blind opposition, others have gone forth to 
distant lands in response to the Macedonian call and Christ 
has triumphed. ‘ Who follows in their train? ” 


x 
THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 
LUKE 3: 1-18 


HE fullest account of the life of John the Baptist is 

that of St. Luke, who is our only source for the 

birth-story and early training of the harbinger and 
herald of a new age. His prophetic call is attested both in 
the Old and New Testament. From the Gospel of St. 
Luke, as well as from the testimony of the Baptist himself, 
we learn that he was not merely called to be a prophet 
shortly before he began his public ministry, but that he 
was the prophesied forerunner of Jesus the Messiah. 
“For this is he that was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, 
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” St. 
Mark introduces this quotation from Isaiah 40: 3 by quot- 
ing Malachi 3:1, “ Behold, I send My messenger before 
Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way.” St. Luke relates 
that the angel Gabriel, in announcing the birth of John the 
Baptist, connected with him another passage in Malachi. 
This quotation from Malachi 4: 5, 6 reads in part as fol- 
lows, “ He shall go before His face in the spirit and power 
of Elijah to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 
Of all the prophets, he has the sole distinction of being the 
subject of prophecy. 

That he was to be a man of unusual historical impor- 
tance is indicated by the incidents recorded in the first 
chapter of Luke. Like Moses, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he 
sprang from a priestly family, both parents being of 


183 


184 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Aaronic descent. The conditions under which he was 
born remind us of the birth of Isaac. He was a child of 
old age, Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth being well ad- 
vanced in years. As in the case of Isaac and of Jesus, his 
birth is previously announced by an angel. The parents 
of the forerunner were a pious God-fearing pair. Finding 
their home unblessed, they besought the Lord for a natural 
heir, for who knows but what the herald of a new dispen- 
sation or even the promised Messiah might come to bless 
them in their loneliness, and thus remove from the heart 
of praying Elizabeth the stinging stigma of childlessness? 
They prayed earnestly and long, but to no avail. The 
years rolled on and the one great hope of their lives had 
not been realized. Judging from the contents of Luke 
1:18, it appears that they had ceased to hope, when the 
announcement came that their prayers were to be answered 
at last. Addressing the officiating priest in the temple 
proper, the angel says, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy 
prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a 
son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt 
have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord.” If the 
answer to his prayer has been deferred to old age, it was 
that it might come freighted with a larger blessing. The 
promised offspring is to be no ordinary child. His name, 
which is divinely given, signifies ‘‘ Jehovah is gracious,” 
by which Zacharias is given to understand that this gra- 
cious act of divine visitation had reference not merely to a 
certain priestly family in the hill-country of Judza but to 
the nation as a whole. 

Like Samuel the prophet, he is to be a Nazirite, a word 
derived from a stem signifying separation, and hence 
complete consecration to God. Such lifelong consecration 
must not be marred, even for a moment, by the use of in- 
toxicants, which might result in bodily drunkenness. It 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 185 


was expected of a person thus consecrated that he abstain 
from wine and strong drink in general. The future sig- 
nificance of the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth is indicated 
by his spiritual equipment: “he shall be filled with the 
Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” In this way 
the herald of a new dispensation shall, in the spirit and 
power of an Elijah, run before the chariot of the coming 
Messiah and prepare His way. In the latter half of his 
prophetic hymn of praise, known as the Benedictus, Zach- 
arias turns to the new-born infant and says, “ And thou, 
child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High; for 
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready 
His ways.” According to St. Luke, John was born about 
six months before the birth of Jesus. The preliminary 
history of the Baptist in so far as it relates to the time 
between his circumcision and prophetic activity by the 
banks of Jordan may be summed up in two brief state- 
ments, ‘‘ The hand of the Lord was with him. And the 
child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the 
deserts till” the divinely-appointed hour when he was to 
be made known to all the people as the prophet of the 
Most High. 

Between the birth and public appearance of the Mes- 
siah’s forerunner there was probably an interval of thirty 
years. How he was prepared for his mission during these 
intervening years is not stated. From the sentences just 
quoted we gather that the child developed physically and 
spiritually into a prophet like Elijah under the influence 
and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is not saying that 
his parents had no share in the education of the growing 
child and maturing youth. The home influences which 
touched and shaped the young prophet-life were among 
the best in the land. We do not know how old he was 
when he took up his abode in the desert. The death of 
his aged father and mother may have furnished a suitable 


186 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


opportunity. He was now a youth, perhaps, of some 
twenty years of age. The place of his abode was not a 
sandy desert or a stony waste, but a region of sparse vege- 
tation stretching westward from the Dead Sea to the 
Judean hills. This region was used, at certain seasons of 
the year, as a grazing ground for any sheep that might be 
led hither by their shepherds after the hill country of 
Judza had been depastured. 

His retirement to the desert is not without prophetic 
precedent. We all remember how the future liberator of 
the clans in Goshen had to retire to the solitudes of Mid- 
ian, where he might develop the necessary moral and spir- 
itual strength for the work of emancipation under the 
maturing influences of his new surroundings far removed 
from the pomp and splendour of the Egyptian court. 
What a contrast between the earthly splendour of the son 
of Pharaoh’s daughter and the simple life of the shepherd 
of Midian! And yet he finally became, by the compelling 
power of a new vision of God, a prophet mighty in word 
and deed. We are reminded also of the herdsman of 
Tekoa, who raised a peculiar breed of desert sheep prized 
for the excellence of their wool. The wilderness of Tekoa 
helped to mould the life of the prophet of social justice. 
The book of Amos reflects the atmosphere of the same 
desert, which played such a large part in the early training 
of John the Baptist. Amos advocates the simple life in 
contrast to the moral and social corruptions of a degraded 
civilization. He felt that the comforts of civilization had 
been purchased at too great a cost. A pleasure-loving 
aristocracy might point to merry-making men and women, 
feasting and reclining upon couches of ivory. But what 
gains are these when the simplicity of better days has been 
supplanted by luxury and frivolity, by sensualism, revelry 
and base animalism? Houses of hewn stone built at the 
expense of the poor and filled with ill-gotten gain can 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 187 


never be a substitute for social righteousness. The land- 
grabbing city merchants and their pleasure-mad consorts 
had all but lost their souls in the midst of savoury dishes, 
bowls filled with wine, fragrant perfumes and sensuous 
music. What the reeling revelers needed was the sobering 
atmosphere of the wilderness of Tekoa. Far better the 
frugality and simplicity of the region of Tekoa than the 
soul-destroying atmosphere of a corrupt civilization! 
Prophets like Amos are to be found among the shepherds 
of Tekoa, but not among hard-faced men and women 
whose finer sensibilities have been dulled by a heartless 
quest for earthly gain and pleasure. The pioneer of the 
literary prophets had a heart for the needs of his fellow 
men. He did not live a life which began and ended in 
mere selfishness. Indeed, his soul was stirred to its very 
depths by the crying social ills of his day. He simply had 
to lift up his voice, in the name of Jehovah, in protest 
against a type of civilization which was sure to come to 
grief sooner or later. 

Then, too, we are reminded, of course, of Elijah, whose 
manner of life and long desert journeys to Horeb and 
elsewhere were a definite protest against the abnormal and 
revolting conditions of town life, due for the most part to 
the accumulation of wealth and to the debasing sensuality 
of vicious sanctuaries dedicated to numerous local deities, 
called Baalim. The scene on Mount Carmel was an at- 
tempt to rescue the people from the debaucheries of Baal- 
worship with its feasting multitudes and wine-mad de- 
votees, and to bring them back to the simplicity and 
rugged piety of Jehovah-worship. It was quite obvious, 
both from a moral and religious standpoint, that Israel 
could not serve two masters. Elijah’s sudden appear- 
ances and disappearances are accounted for by his active 
opposition to the inroads of a corrupt worship, combined 
with his championship of the rights of the people against 


188 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the political and religious tyranny of Ahab and Jezebel. 
He is the prophet of the simple life and he had reason to 
be. This reaction against the luxurious and self-indulgent 
habits introduced into Israel by the Canaanites had set in 
at a much earlier period, as may be seen from the vow of 
the Nazirite, in which some restriction was assumed. The 
distinguishing mark of Samuel’s life-long consecration to 
Jehovah was the unshorn hair. Whether or not his conse- 
cration also took the form of abstinence from wine and 
strong drink, as in the case of Samson and John the Bap- 
tist, we do not know. At all events the vow of one thus 
consecrated was a protest against the demoralizing effect 
of Canaanitish innovations. May we not see in the Nazi- 
rate of Samuel a protest against the revelry of Eli’s sons, 
who apparently were not any better than the average Baal 
worshipper of their day? 

So, too, John the Baptist, as a true Nazirite, was sepa- 
rated from the world and wholly consecrated to God. 
Wine and strong drink were not to be part of his diet. 
Clad not in soft raiment, but clothed in a coarse and rough 
blanket of camel’s hair, resembling the old prophetic garb 
of Elijah and other prophets, he retires to the desert in 
order to get away from the distractions of the teeming 
multitudes. John, possibly a young man by this time, had 
seen enough of “society,” both in Jerusalem and in the 
hill country of Judzea, and he longs for the free and in- 
vigorating atmosphere of desert simplicity. What a relief 
to get away, during the period of preparation, from the 
social chaos of an artificial town life, with all its hollow- 
ness, insincerity and meaningless formalities! There was 
no place in the self-chosen privations of a desert atmos- 
phere for “social lions,” “ flitting butterflies,” flattering 
demagogues and fawning courtiers. John was not clad in 
soft raiment or distinguished by courtly grace; he was not 
a reed shaken by the vacillating winds of personal advan- 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 189 


tage. The only royalty which he recognizes is the royalty 
of a clean heart and of a wholesome character. Conse- 
quently we can quite well understand why he should sub- 
sequently denounce, with such unflinching fearlessness, 
Herod’s incest. Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, must hear 
the truth from prophetic lips, for in the realm of religion 
he is only a man whose social wrongs are a stain upon 
Israel’s religion. It is for him to know that purity of life 
and character is more potent than earthly might. John’s 
desert life and contempt for ease and luxury spoke of a 
strength of character and purpose which fascinated, for a 
time, even such a moral reprobate as the sly “fox” of 
Galilee. His manner of life, his meagre wants, the sim- 
plicity of his place of abode, the wilderness and all that it 
stands for, are a protest against the corruptions of the 
whole social fabric. ‘The low moral condition of Palestine 
needed a tonic. While it might have been impossible for 
the contemporaries of the Baptist to revert to the simplic- 
ity of a desert atmosphere, they would nevertheless do 
well to heed the lesson which the gaunt but mighty recluse 
was trying to teach them. 

As regards the religious background of the call of John 
the Baptist, it will be noted that the son of Zacharias pre- 
ferred the solitude of the desert to the company of the 
scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem. Though he might 
have become a priest by virtue of his birth, he renounces 
the priesthood and breaks with the recognized leaders of 
religion. In obedience to a higher call he leaves behind 
him the rabbis and the religious formalists in the metropo- 
lis of the nation in order that he might become a prophet 
by divine nurture. The wilderness was more conducive to 
the growth and development of the prophetic spirit than 
the cold and chilling atmosphere of Pharisaic formalism 
and Sadducean indifference. Although later Judaism was 
not altogether a dull piece of mechanism, as may be seen 


199 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


from the gospel portraits of Zacharias and Elizabeth, of 
Simeon and Anna, and more especially of Mary, the 
mother of Jesus, the fact remains that for purposes of 
meditation, study and prayer the desert, with its stimulat- 
ing background of prophetic precedent, could do vastly 
more for a youth who was to be a second Elijah than 
the hopeless viper-brood in Jerusalem, who had sub- 
stituted for the heart service of the prophets the me- 
chanical formalism of outward performances, prescribed 
by law. 

The rabbinical comments, for example, on one of the 
sublimest passages in the Old Testament, containing the 
words, “ Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might,” are 
limited to such questions as, Shall these words be recited 
standing up or lying down at the break of day, and shall 
they be recited audibly or inaudibly? This is but one of 
many instances showing that Judaism had reduced religion 
to a lifeless mathematical formula, to a codified lawbook 
of rites and ceremonies, of sacred days and sacrificial of- 
ferings, of tithes and temple-taxes, of moral and ethical 
precepts, all of which were defined with hair-splitting 
accuracy and precision. The letter and not the spirit of 
the law must be obeyed at all hazards. This minute and 
literal observance of the law became more and more a 
matter of pure calculation. It was not so much a question 
of how much can I do for a loving and gracious God, but 
how little may I do and yet obtain the greatest amount of 
blessings. If there were those in the time of John the 
Baptist who served God from purer motives, they were the 
exception rather than the rule. The whole development of 
the religion of later Judaism was in the direction of a 
stultifying legalism, as many a parable in the four Gospels 
clearly shows. The theoretical elaboration of the law by 
the scribes from the time of Ezra to the beginning of our 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 191 


era was not wholly detrimental to the cause of religion, for 
it prevented the religion of the Old Testament from being 
submerged by the fierce tidal waves of Hellenic culture. 
The very definiteness of a well-defined system of legalized 
forms of worship and of practical living acted as a check 
upon heathen influences from without and rendered apos- 
tasy and idolatry increasingly difficult. But while all this 
is true, it cannot be denied that the externalizing process 
of Pharisaic legalism had gone entirely too far. Uncon- 
sciously and unintentionally, perhaps, the lawmakers of 
Judaism had legalized the very heart and life out of their 
religion. The religious plight of a misguided nation de- 
manded a truly prophetic pathfinder, who would lead them 
away from the stagnant pools of Judaism and bring them 
to the Fountain of living waters. 

But we are anticipating. It remains to say a word as to 
the political conditions of the time with which we are deal- 
ing. Politically, conditions in Palestine under Roman rule 
were certainly not any worse than they were in the days 
of Nebuchadrezzar, when the Hebrew nation lost its po- 
litical independence. The Hebrew monarchy, after about 
four centuries of existence, fell to pieces with the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem in 586 B. c. by the armies of Nebuchad- 
rezzar the Great. The major portion of the Hebrew peo- 
ple were deported to Babylon, and the national existence 
of the Hebrews came to an end. But the conquest of 
Babylonia by the Persians enabled the Jewish exiles to re- 
establish themselves in Palestine. From Cyrus to Alex- 
ander the Great, that is to say, from 538 to 333 B. c., the 
Jewish community remained a Persian province. The 
change from Persian to Greek rule brought Judaism into 
contact with Hellenism. The Greek period (333-175 
B. C.) inaugurated a most dangerous secularizing process, 
which threatened the very life of the religious institutions 
of Israel. During the lifetime of Alexander the Great the 


192 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Jews were permitted to enjoy complete religious liberty. 
The founding of the City of Alexandria by the conqueror 
of Egypt brought to them many political and commercial 
advantages, of which the more enterprising gladly availed 
themselves. Upon the death of Alexander, in 323 B. c., 
Palestine became the bone of contention between the Sel- 
eucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. Unluckily 
for the Jews, the Seleucids, at the beginning of the second 
century, secured control of Palestine. The life-and-death 
struggle which now ensued, brought on the Maccabean 
revolt. If Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 zB. c.) had not 
attempted to force Greek life and religion upon the Jewish 
commonwealth, Judaism might have succumbed, and the 
priceless treasures of Israel’s Meagan would, humanly 
speaking, have been lost. 

At this critical juncture the Jews, under the heroic and 
capable leadership of Mattathias and his five sons, suc- 
ceeded in gaining theirandependence. An appeal to Rome, 
in the year 63 B. c., by two rival contenders for the high 
priesthood led to the loss of Jewish independence. During 
the Roman period from 63 B. c. to 70 A. D., the reign of 
Herod the Great (37 B. c. to4 A. D.) brought a measure of 
independence to the kingdom of Judea. Morally, how- 
ever, his influence was not for good, his character being 
of the worst type. He was an Edomite by birth, and al- 
though nominally an adherent of the Jewish religion, the 
cruel tyrant cared more for the veneer of Hellenic culture 
than for the religion of the Old Testament. Some of his 
despicable acts are sufficiently well known to need no 
further elaboration here. Upon the death of Herod, the 
kingdom was divided among his sons as follows: Arche- 
laus received the larger portion with the title of ethnarch 
of Judea, Samaria and Edom; Herod Antipas was ap- 
pointed tetrarch of Galilee and Perza; and Philip, the 
tetrarch, came into possession of the regions beyond the 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST ~~ 198 


Sea of Galilee. Political conditions at the beginning of 
Christianity are reflected in the chronological statements 
of the third chapter of St. Luke, which are intended to fix 
the date of the official call of John the Baptist to his pro- 
phetic work, inasmuch as it was in the selfsame year that 
Jesus began His public ministry. 

The date of this twofold event coincides with the year 
26 A. D., John’s first public appearance being assigned by 
the Evangelist to the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 
Cesar. Palestine by this time had been divided into four 
parts. Judea was governed by a Roman procurator in 
the person of Pontius Pilate, a self-seeking, unscrupulous 
official, who was always glad to compromise with principle 
whenever it served his own selfish ends. Herod Antipas 
and Philip are still in possession of their respective tet- 
rarchies. Mention is made of a certain Lysanius, who had 
been appointed procurator of Abilene. The high priestly 
office in Jerusalem is entirely at the mercy of the political 
whims of the imperial mistress along the banks of the 
Tiber. Politically, conditions in Judea were growing 
worse, if anything, not even excepting the despotic rule of 
scheming Herod or the misrule of Archelaus, who had 
succeeded him. Galilee, for that matter, had fared no 
better, the vices and not the virtues of old Herod having 
become second nature to Herod Antipas. Ah, but listen, 
ye victims of political despotism, to the echo of the her- 
ald’s voice crying in the wilderness, ‘ Make ye ready the 
way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” Have the 
political hopes and aspirations of the Jews become vocal 
in the gaunt figure of the desert-loving prophet? Will he, 
like another Maccabee, break the yoke. of the foreign op- 
pressor and restore, in the power of Elijah come to life 
again, the political fortunes of a people destined to rule 
the world? The temper of the age demanded that the 
forerunner of the Messiah’s chariot must needs be a po- 


194 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


litical personage, heralding the near approach of a mignity 
political conqueror. Men in those days could not think of 
religious leadership without political supremacy. 

This explains why Josephus, who is a good representa- 
tive of Jewish public opinion, regards the death of John 
the Baptist at the hands of Herod Antipas as springing 
from political causes. Speaking of the powerful preacher 
in the Jordan Valley, surrounded by multitudes of pil- 
grims eager to hear him, Josephus says, “ Now, when 
many of the people came to crowd about him, for they 
were greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who 
feared lest the great influence John had over the people 
might put it into his power and inclination to start an up- 
rising (for they seemed ready to do anything he should 
advise), thought it best by putting him to death to prevent 
any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into 
difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent 
of it when it should be too late” (Antiquities XVIII, 5,2). 
Josephus is in error. This is clear from the gospel narra- 
tives. His mistake is typical of the Jews in general during 
the public activity of John and of Jesus. John was no 
political agitator. Politics does not lie in the sphere of his 
immediate interest, which is religious and moral. There 
is not the slightest trace of a political purpose in any of his 
recorded utterances. To the soldiers, who wanted to 
know what they might do to further the interests of the 
approaching kingdom, John says, “ Do violence to no man, 
neither exact anything wrongfully, and be content with 
your wages’ (Luke 3:14). The herald of a new age did 
not concern himself with political affairs any more than 
did that mighty Galilean who established His kingdom not 
by force of arms but by spiritual means. The coming 
kingdom, which John announced, was spiritual. It was 
rooted in a dynamic religion, capable of renewing from 
within life in its entirety. Men’s hearts must be renewed 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 195 


before the political and social organism can be changed, 
but whereof more presently. 

We must now discuss the call and prophetic mission of 
John the Baptist, as recorded in Matthew 3:1-2, Mark 
1: 1-8, and Luke 3:1-18. But as the parallel passages in 
Matthew and Mark substantially agree with the fuller 
account in Luke, our discussion will be confined to the 
pasage in Luke, which offers a greater wealth of detail 
than the other synoptists. As a matter of fact, St. Luke 
is the only Evangelist who refers to the call of John the 
Baptist. In Luke 3:2 we read, “ The word of God came 
unto John in the wilderness.” The expression, “ The 
word of God came” is unique in the New Testament. It 
is the old prophetic formula, which occurs so frequently 
in the Old Testament. This phrase is met with almost 
exclusively in prophetic literature, such as the Minor 
Prophets, but more especially in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In 
general it has reference to authorized service for God in 
connection with the prophetic call. In the case of John it 
points to the prophetic character of his mission and brings 
him into line with the spirit of prophecy which seemed to 
have ended with Malachi. In John prophetic predictions 
have become a concrete reality. St. Luke introduces him | 
as a God-sent preacher, fully conscious of his prophetic 
authority. What an inspiration to a man to know and to 
feel that “the word of God came” to him. How the pro- 
phetic call came to John is not stated. Some of the more 
recent commentators think that “the word of God came” 
to the prophet’s inner consciousness, causing him, under 
the driving power of the inner urge, to emerge from his 
solitude, and to appear at the fords of the Jordan with 
the suddenness of an Elijah come to life again. 

As no mention is made in the gospel narratives of a 
theophany in connection with the actual beginning of 
John’s ministry, the question as to whether we are dealing 


196 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


here with an external or inner call need not detain us here, 
since the inner call may be just as real and lasting in its 
ultimate effects as the sound of an objective voice made 
audible to the physical senses. Constituted as we are and 
for spiritual reasons alone, it does seem that the commis- 
sioning voice of conscience, which is really the voice of 
God, is to be preferred to a voice made audible by some 
other means. In any case, John’s qualifications are unim- 
peachable. He speaks with authority by virtue of the call 
which has come to him. Multitudes of pilgrims gather 
around him, eager to get a glimpse of the mighty prophet 
and to hear his message. Everybody feels that he is pos- 
sessed by the word of God and that he is a man of power. 
The very sight of a prophet, who reminded them of Eli- 
jah, was worth a day’s journey to the Jordan River. Al- 
though John does not speak of himself as a prophet, he 
was nevertheless a prophet, according to the direct testi- 
mony of Jesus; then, too, the people in general regarded 
him as a prophet. The humility of the man was such that 
he simply calls himself a “ voice.” But he is no ordinary 
voice. He is a prophetic voice with no uncertain sound. 
Continuing his narrative, St. Luke says, “And he came 
unto all the regions round about Jordan, preaching the 
baptism of repentance with the remission of sins, as it is 
written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, 
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley 
shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought 
low, and the crooked shall become straight and the rough 
ways smooth.” 

John lays no claim to equality with the coming Messiah. 
To his disciples he says, “ Ye yourselves bear me witness 
that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before 
Him” (John 3:28). John the Baptist declares that he 
comes exclusively for the purpose of making known the 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 197 


Messiah to Israel. His function is that of a herald, or 
divinely appointed prophet, whose voice is not to be ig- 
nored. Referring to the historic appearance in the Jordan 
Valley of the God-sent messenger, the writer of the pro- 
logue to the Fourth Gospel says, ‘‘ There was a man sent 
from God, whose name was John. The same came for 
witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all 
men might believe through him.” The object of his 
witness-bearing is to point men to “ the light ” in order to 
elicit faith in Him who was about to begin His public min- 
istry. To the author of the Fourth Gospel “ the light” is 
simply another name for “ Jesus,” “ Christ” (Messiah), 
“Son of God,” “Son of man,” the incarnate ‘ Word.” 
There is a great difference between the providential mis- 
sion of the precursor and the mission of Jesus. John 
knows that the flickering morning star of a new-born day 
will soon be extinguished by the full-orbed Sun. He real- 
izes that his preparatory work is inferior to that of his in- 
comparably greater successor, and that the work of the 
one stands in relation to the other as water to spirit or 
word to deed. The only office which he claims is that of a 
prophetic voice announcing the advent of the Messianic 
King and calling upon the people to prepare for His com- 
ing. He precedes, as it were, the royal chariot, preparing 
the King’s highway in the pathless desert of this life, caus- 
ing a straight, direct road to take the place of winding 
foot-paths by seeing to it that the contour of intervening 
valleys and hills assume the proper level. He is a pioneer, 
who removes obstacles, clears away impediments, makes 
crooked places straight, and rough ways smooth. But the 
obstacles which the pathfinder of a new age 1s called upon 
to remove, are not physical but moral and religious. The 
burden of his message is, “ Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand.” 

The kingdom of heaven, as the term itself denotes, is a 


198 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


spiritual and not a human product. By an act of God it 
comes down from heaven and represents the rule of 
heaven’s King over all the earth. It was not to be fash- 
ioned after the kingdoms of this world, nor was it to be 
brought down to the earthly and unspiritual level of the 
Roman empire or even of the shadowy adumbrations of 
divine rule under the Hebrew theocracy. It will be more 
enduring than these and other earthly kingdoms, because 
it is founded on heavenly, that is to say, spiritual prin- 
ciples underlying the realized reign of God in heart and 
life. A glance at the historic manifestations of the He- 
brew theocracy shows how imperfectly the Old Testament 
ideal of the kingdom of God was realized. According to 
the Old Testament, God is the King of Israel, not to speak 
of His sovereignty over the universe which He has cre- 
ated. Under the monarchy the Davidic king was regarded 
as the representative of Jehovah. But the members of that 
dynasty and their respective reigns were poor embodiments 
of theocratic rule in and through Israel. Consequently 
men began to turn their attention to the Messianic King of 
the future in whom Israel’s Messianic hope was to be fully 
realized. We know, of course, that the perfect realization 
of this ideal was deferred until the fulness of time. Mean- 
while, however, there was an air of constant expectancy, 
even after the overthrow of the house of David. 

From the days of the exile down to the coming of 
David’s greater Son, the people in their forlorn condition 
longed for a new David to restore the lost glories of a po- 
litically oppressed race, and to take vengeance upon the 
heathen world-powers by whom they had been so long 
oppressed. Messianic prophecies were studied and expati- 
ated upon with a new-born zeal. Apocalyptic literature, 
like the book of Daniel, must have been exceedingly popu- 
lar, judging from its influence upon the development of 
the Messianic idea. The central figure of the apocalyptic 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 199 


hope in Daniel is “ The Son of man coming on the clouds 
of heaven,” conceived as a heavenly being in opposition to 
the beasts which represented the heathen kingdoms. The 
four beasts, representing four Gentile empires, have a 
purely animal, that is, heathen character; they are of this 
world and typify the supremacy of brute force. The 
fourth of these empires will be overthrown by divine in- 
terposition in order that an everlasting kingdom may be 
set up. This kingdom comes down from heaven and will 
be ushered in by the power of God. The human form of 
the celestial being coming on the clouds of heaven, as op- 
posed to the earth-born bestial kingdoms, shows that the 
Messianic kingdom is to be characterized by a supremacy 
essentially spiritual. The world-embracing scope of the 
divine kingdom will involve the ultimate overthrow of 
Gentile supremacy, “The God of heaven shall set up a 
kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; it shall crush and 
destroy all these kingdoms, but as for it, it shall abide 
forever” (Dan. 2:44; compare chapter 7). 

But the predominantly spiritual aspects of the coming 
kingdom are somewhat obscured by later Jewish apoca- 
lyptic writers in view of the political distress of the nation. 
While many passages, for instance, in such writings as the 
Psalms of Solomon, composed in the time of Pompey, 
when Jerusalem had come under Roman rule, attain a 
relatively high plane of religious idealism, there is substi- 
tuted for the spiritual supremacy of the divine kingdom an 
essentially political Messiah, who will intervene victori- 
ously in behalf of His people, put down Roman rule, and 
so restore the kingdom unto Israel. The first act of the 
Messiah, who is thought of as a human king and ruler but 
endowed by God with special gifts and powers, is to de- 
stroy hostile world-powers. In the Targums the Messiah, 
like a mighty hero, overcomes his enemies in battle. Ac- 
cording to Jewish ideas, existing political relations were 


200 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


an insult to the national prerogatives of a highly privileged 
people, who, instead of paying tribute to the Romans, were 
destined to rule the world. In general, Jewish Messianic 
ideas at the beginning of the Christian era are coloured 
very largely by national expectations. That the Jews re- 
garded the theocratic kingship of the future as a sort of 
temporal monarchy with Jerusalem as the capital city of 
the world is only too apparent from the life of Christ. 
Though external or temporal blessings are not entirely 
absent from the Old Testament picture of the Messianic 
age, the blessings attendant upon the establishment of 
God’s righteous rule upon earth will be chiefly internal 
and spiritual. 

But the advent of the Messiah is also intimately as- 
sociated with the idea of judgment. For those in Israel 
who are unprepared for His coming, “the day of the 
Lord” will be a day of judgment. In Isaiah and else- 
where “the day of the Lord” is a moral and religious 
necessity involving judgment upon irreligious pride and 
upon every form of sin. The establishment of God’s uni- 
versal rule in men’s hearts and lives implies that this act 
of judgment will proceed, not along national but moral and 
religious lines. It will be determined by the attitude of the 
heart and the character of the individual and not by the 
accident of birth or physical descent from Abraham. The 
need of a thoroughgoing moral preparation for the Messi- 
anic age did not occur to the supercilious formalists in the 
Jordan Valley who had set their confidence in purely ex- 
ternal standards and mechanical observances. They had 
supposed that the sifting process of judgment was re- 
served for the Gentiles and for those in Israel who did not 
live up to the external requirements of the law. But the 
fearless preacher in the wilderness informs them that na- 
tional privileges and prerogatives will be useless and that 
the road which they have chosen will only lead to destruc- 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 201 


tion. They will not be immune to judgment when the 
Messiah comes, for while the truly penitent will be bap- 
tized with the Holy Spirit, others, who are impenitent and 
unwilling to meet the conditions of the Messianic age, will 
be baptized with the fire of judgment. The Messiah “ will 
gather His wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will 
burn with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12). Or, to 
change the figure, “ The axe also lieth at the root of the 
trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good 
fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire” (Luke 3:9). 
Men lacking in sincerity will be among the very first to be 
condemned. The priests and religious leaders of the time 
were a slimy, creeping brood of vipers, seeking John’s bap- 
tism in the hope of escaping “the wrath to come.” They 
did not seem to show any disposition to meet the condi- 
tions required for baptism. John’s rebuke was justified. 
God’s plan of salvation will not be seriously interfered 
with if the foolishly proud and arrogant sons of Abraham 
are excluded from the Messianic kingdom, for God is able, 
out of the dry stones of the desert, to raise up spiritual 
seed unto Abraham. God’s plan of salvation is not na- 
tional but universal, “ And all flesh shall see the salvation 
of God” (Luke 3:6). The purpose of the forerunner’s 
mission is to prepare the way of the Lord’s Anointed, so 
that everybody, even those not of Israel, might see the 
salvation of God, 

But the subjects of the Messianic kingdom must be 
prepared for the advent of the Messiah, and hence the ne- 
cessity of repentance unto the remission of sins. If the 
proposed visit of an oriental monarch demanded the erec- 
tion of a suitable highway for the royal visit, John’s call to 
repentance was the most pressing need of the hour, since 
the road of the coming Messiah was to lead first of all to 
men’s hearts before His kingdom could be established on 
earth. Like the old prophets, John speaks in the impera- 


202 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


tive mood, “‘ Repent,” he says, “ for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand.” It has the ring of genuineness and of author- 
ity. Nothing else will do. It is the only fitting preparation 
for entrance into a kingdom which comes from heaven and 
which is so different from the kingdoms of this world. An 
earthly-minded and a time-serving expediency is conspicu- 
ously absent in the constitution of that kingdom. It is gov- 
erned by spiritual principles, which are unchangeable and 
eternal, because they are so just and so all-inclusive. Re- 
ligion and morality, worship and life are blended into one 
harmonious whole. ‘To John, repentance was a far-reach- 
ing and radical thing. It effected not merely the outside 
of religion, such as outward observances and mechanical 
performances based on external standards; it was con- 
cerned more particularly with the inside of religion, with 
the inner motives, aspirations and purposes of the heart 
and with the direction of the will. The preparer of the 
King’s highway could not endure the artificial and super- 
ficial religious and ethical ideals of his countrymen. They 
were on the wrong track. They were headed in the wrong 
direction. There was an externalizing bias about every- 
thing they did. Through the pathless desert of Judaism 
there reverberated the soul-searching cry of the mighty 
preacher, ‘‘ Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

To repent means to change one’s. mind with respect to 
religion and life. When we speak of a change of mind we 
do not refer to something which is merely intellectual. 
The mind, according to Biblical psychology, is more than 
intellect. In the Old Testament the heart and not the mind 
is the seat of the intellect. As it would take us too far 
afield, were we to draw upon the many passages which 
might be cited in this connection, we shall limit ourselves 
to a few characteristic passages. In Proverbs 23:7 we are 
told that as a man “ thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Ac- 
cording to Esther 6:6, “ Haman thought in his heart ” 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST ~— 208 


that the king would take special delight in honouring him 
above his fellows. Isaiah 10:7 informs us that the Assy- 
rian is the rod of God’s punitive anger, but “ he meaneth 
not so, neither doth his heart think so; yea, rather is it in 
his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.” Speaking 
of the destructive influences of vice upon brain-power, 
Hosea remarks, “ Harlotry and wine take away the heart,” 
that is, the understanding or intellectual brain-power 
(4:11). In another place Ephraim is characterized as 
“a silly dove without heart,” or as we should say, without 
brains or, in this case, without political wisdom. But the 
heart is not only the seat of the intellect; it is also the 
mainspring of human action. The idea of repentance, 
however, is not restricted to the heart, although the latter 
may have a very vital part in the act of repentance. It is 
a complex process, for repentance may have reference to 
the emotions, to a man’s conscience, and to the direction of 
the will. The word used by John frequently occurs in the 
Septuagint as the Greek translation of a Hebrew word, 
which expresses the idea of grief over a course previously 
adopted, but which has now come to be regarded as wrong 
and wicked. In many other passages of the same Greek 
translation it is the equivalent of the Hebrew word for 
turning away from one’s evil ways and returning to God 
and His ways. It implies a complete reversal of one’s con- 
duct or a change in one’s thoughts, aims, purposes and 
whole manner of life. Amos makes frequent use of this 
word in appealing to the people to turn away from their 
social wrongdoings and turn to God and adhere, in religion 
and life, to the lofty principles of an ethical religion. 

To Hosea repentance is a turning back upon one’s self 
and a coming home to the Father’s house. It reminds us 
of that wonderful parable of Jesus, in which the penitent 
prodigal not only comes to himself but actually turns 
against himself and says, “I will arise and go to my 


204 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


father.” It meant the abandonment of a godless life, as 
also in Ezekiel, where the prophet says, “Turn ye from 
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” 
New Testament metanoia literally means a change of 
mind. But, as we have seen, this word contains a great 
deal more*than that, as it is concerned with the heart as 
well. To repent, as understood by John, who more than 
any of his predecessors represents the true spirit of proph- 
ecy, also involved the idea of turning away from false 
standards of life and adjusting one’s self to the conditions 
of a new age. For instance, the official representatives of 
religion are told not to trust in their Abrahamic descent 
but to recognize their individual responsibility to God. 
For them, repentance practically means, Turn away from 
the self-created snares of religious and moral perversion. 
The Sadducees must lay aside their rationalistic cynicism, 
their indifference and worldliness; the Pharisees must be 
liberated from their self-righteous hypocrisy and their cold 
formalism. The pure wheat of Old Testament revelation 
must be freed and rescued from the traditional and unspir- 
itual chaff of hair-splitting lawyers. John did not mince 
matters. These unspiritual sons of Abraham were venom- 
ous at heart and would sting like a viper their unsuspect- 
ing brother Israelites. They wanted the baptism only and 
not the repentance which preceded it. To their way of 
thinking it was more important to wash the outside than 
the inside of the cup. A whitened sepulchre full of dead 
men’s bones has at least the advantage of presenting to the 
superficial gaze of one’s fellowmen the appearance of 
external cleanliness and purity. 

Both John and Jesus penetrated to the heart of things. 
The religious formalists were informed that it was a 
spiritual, not a physical condition which qualified for en- 
trance into the kingdom. If it were a question of replen- 
ishing that kingdom with the physical descendants of 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 205 


Abraham, God could turn the very stones along the banks 
of Jordan and in that entire region into Israelites with the 
characteristic physiognomy of the children of Abraham. 
The fearless prophet in the Jordan Valley charges them 
with insincerity in coming to his baptism, not in response 
to an inner desire to lead a better life but out of mere curi- 
osity and for the purpose of escaping the expected judg- 
ment which was impending. A good pedigree will not 
suffice for admittance to the new kingdom, which has made 
no provision for hereditary salvation. The kind of religion 
which is now demanded cannot be inherited from one’s 
ancestors. One’s relation to the kingdom of God is not de- 
termined by a family tree. Lineal descent from Abraham 
is no substitute for a radical change of mind and heart. 
They are fitly described as so many trees with the leaves 
of profession but without the fruit of performance, as 
chaff with only the semblance of wheat. As the seed of 
Abraham they ought to produce the fruits of Abraham’s 
spiritual descendants. Lacking these, they ought to pro- 
duce, as a test of their sincerity of purpose, fruits meet for 
repentance, that is to say, they should have endeavoured to 
make amends, wherever possible, for past shortcomings 
and sins, or at any rate, put themselves in line with God’s 
gracious purposes. 

Repentance ought to produce some results. No man can 
set his face toward the light of God’s truth without some 
illuminating effect appearing in his heart and life. The 
very least that the Pharisees and Sadducees can do is to 
repent of their evil ways and to manifest a sincere desire 
for a deeper experience of religion and so produce the 
fruits of a well-rooted religious life. Not that there is any 
saving merit in repentance as such, for while only those 
who are truly penitent receive the forgiveness of sins, 
salvation is not merited by repentance. Says Zacharias in 
the closing verses of the Benedsctus at the end of the first 


206 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


chapter of St. Luke, “ And thou, child, shalt be called the 
prophet of the Most High; for thou shalt go before the 
face of the Lord to make ready His ways, to give knowl- 
edge of salvation unto His people in the remission of their 
sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the 
dayspring from on high hath visited us.” Salvation is 
bestowed by a compassionate God, who has caused the Sun 
of salvation to send forth His radiant beams from the 
heavens for the healing of nations groping in the darkness 
of this world. ‘That was a lesson the work-righteous 
Pharisees needed to learn. They were playing around the 
periphery of religion to the neglect of the weightier mat- 
ters of the law, such as compassionate mercy or an unself- 
ish heart-interest in God and man. Their religion lacked 
depth and sincerity, because it was rooted not in love to 
God and man, but in the shallow, stony soil of a super- 
ficial legalism. ‘They failed to realize that the seat of re- 
ligion is in the heart, in the will, in the conscience, and not 
merely in the intellect. They had still to learn what Jesus 
said not long thereafter, ‘The kingdom of God is within 
you.” Turning from his insincere antagonists to the peo- 
ple in general, John informs the latter in no uncertain 
tones that they must enter the kingdom through the gate- 
way of repentance. 

Upon hearing the Baptist’s arraignment of the religious 
leaders of the nation, who were like so many barren fruit- 
trees and as hollow as chaff, the people, realizing the need 
of action of some kind in their own lives, asked John what 
they should do to prove the genuineness of their repent- 
ance. And what was the answer? Did they expect him to 
say that they should live an ascetic life or repent in sack- 
cloth and ashes? His answer, calling for the exercise of 
brotherly love and of a genuinely neighbourly spirit, is an 
indication of the true greatness of the man, who was not 
interested in the external circumstances of the hermit’s 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 207 


life as such, nor in the Pharisaic piety of outside appear- 
ances. “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him 
that hath none; and he that hath food let him do likewise.” 
While these acts belong, strictly speaking, to the sphere of 
morality rather than of religion, they are nevertheless, 
under proper conditions, the product of an inward disposi- 
tion. A charitable disposition, which gladly shares food 
and clothing with those in need, points to a change of 
heart with respect to our fellowmen. In the new age, 
human selfishness and greed and that miserable grasping 
spirit, which tramples upon men’s rights and kills every 
finer instinct, must be dethroned, so that true religion—the 
kind of religion that is bound to produce fruit—may have 
its way in the individual life. John, it will be noted, passes 
by in silence the usual ceremonies of the law. Of course, 
the argument from silence is not in itself conclusive, and 
yet had the son of Zacharias been satisfied with ritualistic 
observances and legalistic performances he would have 
become a priest and remained in Jerusalem. John is a 
prophet and no priest, and hence his arraignment of the 
Sadducees and Pharisees. Like the old prophets, he is an 
advocate of compassionate mercy, of justice, honesty, 
fidelity and humility. The lip-service of cold formalism is 
a poor substitute for a religion of the heart with its spon- 
taneous outgoings of love to God and man, The best com- 
mentary on this aspect of religion is the parable of the 
Good Samaritan in Luke 10: 25-37. 

What repentance means in a practical way is further 
illustrated by John’s reply to the publicans and soldiers 
who wanted to know what they should do. The change of 
heart demanded of them is a new attitude toward the ordi- 
nary duties of life. John’s advice to the subordinate off- 
cials of the chief tax-gatherer of the Roman government 
is, “ Extort no more than that which is appointed you.” 
These Jewish tax-gatherers are told to avoid the besetting 


208 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


sin of extortion, causing them to collect more taxes than 
the law allowed. The practical meaning of repentance in 
this case is, ‘‘ Restrain your selfish impulses, curb your un- 
just exactions, stop your dishonest dealings, do not enrich 
yourselves at the expense of your fellowmen, be honest 
and refrain from extortion.” Somewhat similar advice is 
given to a group of soldiers in answer to the question, 
“And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, 
Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse any one 
wrongfully ; and be content with your rations.” Whether 
or not these men were of Jewish extraction we do not 
know; at any rate, while crossing the fords of Jordan at 
this particular place they were not only attracted but also 
deeply impressed by the mighty preacher of repentance, 
who had connected repentance with the near approach of a 
new kingdom, the establishment of which would be pre- 
ceded by an act of judgment on any who failed to make 
due preparation for the coming of the Messianic King. 
Was there anything that they might do to further the 
interests of that kingdom? Yes; like every other pros- 
pective citizen of that kingdom, they might repent of their 
sins, for the prophet’s call to repentance was not in the 
first instance a call to arms against the Roman govern- 
ment but against self and the sins which so easily beset 
men under marching orders. The establishment of the 
kingdom of heaven on earth does not depend on military 
action; if it did, legions of angels would unsheathe their 
victorious swords and slay the tottering armies of hostile 
men. It is more important for the present that soldiers in 
the employ of the government abstain from oppressive 
methods and false accusations against rich and poor alike 
for the sake of supplementing their scant pay. Let them 
resort to proper methods. If action of any kind is needed, 
it is a change of viewpoint as to what really constitutes 
life and happiness. We ourselves must be reformed be- 


THE CALL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 209 


fore we can hope to reform the world. Reformation must 
always begin in the mainsprings of individual character. 
This is the most important preliminary to a reformation of 
the world. Therefore the summons must be, not to arms, 
but to repentance, or a change of mind and heart with 
respect to religion and life. } 

The preacher of repentance put his teaching in a sym- 
bolic form. The rite of baptism characterizes his ministry, 
not that symbolical lustrations or washings were new to 
the religion of the Jews, but because he associated the rite 
with the new kingdom, regarding it apparently as an act 
of. consecration and as an expression of loyalty to the king- 
dom of the Messiah. It was for this reason that he was 
called “the Baptist”’ or “the Baptizer.” According to 
John 1:33, the preacher in the Jordan Valley received a 
special commission from God to baptize the people as a 
preparation for the advent of the Messiah. In Mark 
11:30 Jesus virtually says that John’s baptism was from 
heaven and not from men. Like repentance, it was a pre- 
paratory act for participation in the Messianic kingdom. 
The preparation demanded by the coming kingdom was a 
change of mind and heart, accompanied by a compelling 
sense of sin and the need for inward cleansing. What 
more fitting symbol of that inner purification of thought, 
will, motive and desire could be found than the water- 
baptism of John, which appears to have been preceded in 
all cases, except that of Jesus, by a confession of sins, 
either expressed or implied? While John did not pretend 
to baptize with the Holy Spirit, he could at least baptize 
with water, and thus prepare the way for the Messianic 
baptism which was to follow. 

Through his preparatory work of calling upon sinners 
to repent and to seal their change of heart and life by bap- 
tism, John enabled some of his hearers to understand and 
follow Jesus. His work, to be sure, was only preliminary, 


210 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


but so is that of every roadbuilder in the kingdom of the 
Christ. He was a herald for Jesus. This is the challenge 
and appeal that comes to every spiritually-minded young 
man. And what more glorious task could come to any 
mortal than that of becoming, by God’s grace, a prophetic 
voice in the pathless wilderness of this world? To point 
out the path that leads to Christ is the plain duty of every 
Christian and more particularly of every consecrated son 
of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Are there no consecrated 
sons in the Church today who, having heard the word of 
the Lord that comes to them through the revealed Word of 
God, are willing to come forth from the solitude of years 
of preparation and sound the trumpet of repentance in the 
face of Pharisaic insincerity and self-righteousness, of 
Herodian depravity and moral laxity, and of a sin-laden 
multitude? If they have some of the moral fibre of John 
the Baptist in their heart and soul they, too, will turn their 
backs upon the “ priestly emoluments ” of the metropolitan 
city and upon the trappings and allurements of a sin- 
cursed civilization, in order that they might lead some of 
earth’s weary pilgrims to the Christ. 


XI 
THE CALL OF JESUS 
MatTrHEew 3: 13-17; 4: 1-11 


N the Pauline Epistles the call of Jesus is referred 
| back to eternity. According to I Cor. 8:6 and Col. 
1: 16-17, He is the agent in creation by whom all 
things were made. That Jesus is conceived as having 
played a real part in Old Testament history is clear from 
I Cor, 10:4, where it is asserted that the spiritual Rock 
which followed the Israelites in the desert and of which 
they drank, was the pre-existent Christ. In Phil. 2: 5-7, 
the eternal Son voluntarily divests Himself of the glories 
of heaven and accepts the limitations implied in the incar- 
nation. To come into our world from a previous state of 
divine existence and to be made in the likeness of sinful 
flesh is an act of sacrifice revealing the vastness of Christ’s 
conquering love (Comp. Gal. 4: 4-5; II Cor. 8:9). The 
idea of Christ’s pre-existence is not peculiar to the apostle 
Paul. It is present also in the Fourth Gospel (6: 38, 51; 
8:42; 16:28; 17:5), and there is reason to believe that it 
came originally from Jesus Himself. The same idea of 
pre-existence occurs in the Sermon on the Mount and 
elsewhere in the first three Gospels. But if the eternal Son 
is to become the Christ of history there must be a period 
of preparation corresponding to the needs of human life. 
The first step in the historical preparation of the Son of 
God for His Messianic work is the assumption of human 
nature. In the prologue to the Fourth Gospel the pre- 
existent Logos becomes incarnate and manifests Himself 


211 


212 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in the flesh. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld His glory, glory like that of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We 
would remark in passing that the glory thus revealed was 
not the Shekinah but the extraordinary power of doing 
signs, seven of which are singled out by the writer of the 
Gospel as typical of all the rest. That the author of the 
prologue has in mind the miraculous deeds of Jesus when 
he says, “ And we beheld His glory,” is clear from John 
2:11, “ This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Gali- 
lee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed 
in Him.” It was also part of His glory to know the. 
thoughts of others by reason of His unique relation to the 
Father, “ He needed not that anyone should bear witness 
concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man ” 
(2:25). The concluding statement in the prologue reads, 
“No mere man hath ever yet seen God.” But this pre- 
rogative, we are told, is accorded to the only begotten Son, 
whose relation to the Father is unique. Hence He is pre-. 
eminently qualified, while on earth, to declare and make 
known the Father, for the revelation of God to the world 
of humanity through one standing to Him in the relation 
of Son is perfect in its mode and complete and final in its 
contents. His unique Sonship has its counterpart in the 
unique birth of Jesus, described in Matthew and Luke in 
words which are familiar to every reader of the Bible. 
The name Jesus is the Latin form of the corresponding 
Greek term, which in turn is the transliteration of the He- 
brew Jeshua, or Joshua, meaning “ Jehovah is salvation.” 

It is important to note that the Son of God became a 
man and was found in fashion as a man. Despite the 
miraculous birth it would be quite erroneous to suppose 
that “the babe in the manger ” was unlike other children 
who, in all their weakness and helplessness, incidental to 
the period of infancy, need to be “ mothered ” into self- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 213 


consciousness and strength. The shepherds of Bethlehem 
might come and adore Him; the child Jesus was hardly 
conscious of their adoration. Wise men from the East 
might spread out their gold and frankincense; the new- 
born King could give them no smile of recognition, for it 
takes an infant at least a month to weave its first smile. 
The voluntary obscuration of the God-man’s divinity was 
a part of the humiliation, referred to in Philippians. The 
ordinary conditions governing physical and mental growth 
were thoroughly human. His childhood, youth, and man- 
hood did not differ radically from the corresponding 
phases of other lives, except that He was more precocious 
mentally and spiritually than other children. He was 
brought up in Nazareth of Galilee amid the simple sur- 
roundings of a carpenter’s home. It was in the seclusion 
of Nazareth that Jesus spent more than three-fourths of 
His earthly life as an active business man, making ploughs 
and yokes and building houses. As the eldest son, He 
would naturally assume, upon the death of Joseph, the 
headship of this family of builders, ever mindful, during 
these silent years, that He must be about His Father’s 
business. ‘T'o this end He early imbibed and thoroughly 
appropriated the contents of Israel’s sacred writings, chief 
among these being the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. 
The New Testament is quite reticent about the early life 
of Jesus, though tradition, here as elsewhere, is garrulous 
enough. The only passages which afford a glimpse of His 
boyhood are found in Luke 2: 40-52, Mark 6: 3, John 
6:42 and 7:15. Here we read that “the child grew and 
waxed strong, becoming full of wisdom and the grace of 
God was upon Him.” 

Then follows the visit to Jerusalem at the age of twelve, 
where He became a “ son of the law.” The temple episode 
shows that the growing boy possessed rare mental powers, 
and acute spiritual discernment far beyond His years. It 


214. THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE. 


was in this connection that He uttered the memorable 
words, “ How is it that ye sought Me? Knew ye not that 
I must be engaged in My Father’s affairs?’ These words 
repudiate the paternity of his foster-father evidently re- 
ferred to in the question addressed to the twelve-year-old, 
who had now attained the legal age. How absorbed He 
was in the things of God! He felt perfectly at home in 
His Father’s house. Does He forget all else because the 
things of the kingdom are His first concern? What are 
the things of earth to a spiritually gifted mind lke His! 
Are we justified in seeing, in the great hour of spiritual 
crisis, which marks the transition from childhood to youth, 
the first gleams of a dawning consciousness of His heav- 
enly origin and of His earthly mission? Unfortunately, 
we are unable to pursue this thought any further for lack 
of evidence on the subject. There is a gap of eighteen 
years of unrecorded experience between the twelve-year- 
old boy and His official call at the age of thirty. The in- 
spired records tell us that during this period of silent pre- 
pafation, He was subject to parental authority, and that 
He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with 
God and men.” A literal rendition of this verse would 
read, “ And Jesus advanced, or better still, cut (His way) 
forward in wisdom and age and in favour with God and 
men.” He cut His way forward! This phrase suggests 
the idea of cutting one’s way through the usual difficulties 
and obstacles met with in human life. Bodily growth must 
be in keeping with the ordinary laws of nature. Mental 
and spiritual growth in a land where the interests of daily 
life are chiefly religious, implies thoughtful study of the | 
written Word and the doing of God’s will on earth. 

In face of the limitations of human existence, all this 
requires effort. So, too, in the life of Jesus. His physical 
and mental life plainly obey the rules of natural human 
development. The words just quoted enunciate a prin- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 215 


ciple that covers, to a greater or less degree, the entire life. 
The home, the shop and the synagogue had a part in His 
preparation and measured the life in its earthly limits, 
though in its height it touched the very heavens, reaching 
up among the infinities. Thirty years of patient conceal- 
ment were required to prepare the God-man for three 
years of public work. During this time He not only 
learned the Aramaic language, which was His mother- 
tongue and vernacular with the Jews, but also acquired a 
working knowledge of the current Greek, for He quotes 
the Septuagint or Greek Scriptures. He was a close ob- 
server of men and things and had at His command, when 
He began His public ministry, a most profound knowledge 
of human motive and of human nature in general. As re- 
gards the practical working knowledge of human nature 
and the way in which it is to be influenced for good and 
completely changed, Jesus is without doubt the greatest 
psychologist that ever lived. He had made Himself such 
by years of patient preparation, silently awaiting the com- 
ing of the hour when with complete consciousness and per- 
fected powers He should begin His Messianic work. 

From this quiet life at Nazareth He was suddenly 
drawn by the preaching of John the Baptist, and the hid- 
den years of silent preparation were at an end. But the 
beginning of His public ministry was preceded by the two 
final incidents of His preparation—the Baptism and the 
Temptation—which still had to take place. 

To Jesus, the prophetic summons to the Jordan was a 
call to commence His work as Messiah. The call of the 
Messiah is the foundation stone of the synoptic narrative. 
The writer of the Fourth Gospel presupposes it, or rather 
regards it as a timeless act on the part of God and refers 
it to eternity. In Mark it forms “the beginning of the 
Gospel.” ‘That the Messianic call came to Jesus at bap- 
tism is attested by Luke also, who, after describing the 


216 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


baptism of Jesus, adds this note, “ And Jesus Himself, 
when He began to teach, was about thirty years of age.” 
The baptism of Jesus signalizes the beginning of His min- 
istry and the public consecration of Himself to the work 
He had to do. By it He was officially called and inducted 
into office. The descent upon Jesus of the Holy Spirit and 
the endowment of His human nature with the highest spir- 
itual gift has some similarity to the inspirational effect of 
the call upon the prophets at the commencement of their 
public ministry. : 

It was reserved for the long-silent voice of prophecy to 
introduce to the Jewish nation its Messiah. Among the 
pilgrims in the Jordan Valley presenting themselves for 
baptism, was the august figure of a Nazarene who particu- 
larly attracted the attention of the stern preacher and filled 
him with a sense of his unworthiness to administer a rite, 
which could be administered much more effectually by his 
worthier successor. ‘“ John would have hindered Him, 
saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest 
Thou to me? But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer 
Me now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. 
Then he suffereth him” (Matt. 3: 14-15). John objects 
because his “baptism unto repentance” includes a con- 
fession of sin and its remission. In the preparatory con- 
versation with Him, John had made the singular discovery 
that the Nazarene had no confession to make, for the sim- 
ple reason that He was utterly without sin. And, wonder- 
ful to relate, the claim is verified and confirmed by what 
John saw and heard in connection with the rite which 
Jesus was about to undergo. For the present at least, 
either from prophetic insight or from previous acquain- 
tance, he sees in Jesus the stainless purity of a sinless soul 
and he hesitates and demurs. Intuitively he discovers, in 
all that concourse of people, the first and only sinless can- 
didate for baptism, recognizing in Him that Greater One, 


THE CALL OF JESUS 217 


whose coming he has already announced and who, by His 
baptism of the Holy Spirit, shall inaugurate the new Mes- 
sianic era. John’s baptism is merely a preparation for the 
advent of the Messiah, and now that He has come, the 
Baptizer desires His baptism of the Spirit in order that 
he might enter the very kingdom which he proclaims to 
these waiting multitudes. 

How incongruous, therefore, in this particular instance 
would be the administration of a rite which was commonly 
regarded as the outward sign of an inward penitence, 
pointing to a certain preparedness for the outpouring of 
God’s Spirit in that fulness which was to characterize the 
Messianic age. Jesus, however, felt that John’s baptism 
was of divine appointment and that it was incumbent upon 
Him to submit to it, thus “ fulfilling all righteousness ” in 
connection with the entire legal economy of God. Though 
it could be said of Him that “ He did no sin, neither was 
guile found in His mouth,” it was a part of His self- 
humiliation that He, as a law-abiding and, therefore, 
righteous Israelite, should observe with religious care 
every ordinance required of the people as a whole. 
Christ’s subordinate relation to the law follows from the 
incarnation, and may well be expressed in the words of 
Galatians 4:4, 5, “ born of a woman, born under the law, 
to redeem them that were under the law that we might 
receive the adoption of sons.” If the male Israelite is 
brought into a covenant relation with the God of Israel by 
the rite of circumcision, then it follows as a matter of 
course that the same ordinance should apply to the Son of 
Mary. That Mary and Joseph should think otherwise is 
unthinkable. Accordingly the child Jesus, as a potential 
member of the covenant people, is circumcised, receiving 
on the eighth day of His birth the sign of the covenant. 
Twelve years later, to be about His Father’s business prac- 
tically meant for Jesus that He must visit His Father’s 


218 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


house, become a “son of the law,” and learn with absorb- 
ing interest everything pertaining to the kingdom of 
heaven. If the “son of the law” went up to the temple, 
not only at the legal age of twelve but also at stated inter- 
vals in accordance with well established legal precedents, 
it was no less a duty for Jesus to present Himself, as His 
countrymen in such large numbers were doing, to receive 
baptism from John. The baptism of the latter, because of 
its divine origin, was intended for all members of the cove- 
nant people, and since the incarnate Son of God has al- 
ready identified Himself with the Old Testament Church 
in the manner prescribed by law, He cannot escape the 
duty of accepting the water baptism of the forerunner, 
whatever He may have thought of the preliminary char- 
acter of it as compared with the fuller and more complete 
baptism of the Spirit, which it was His prerogative to 
administer. 

To Him personally submission to John’s baptism is but 
an act of obedience to a divine ordinance. As a member 
of the covenant race He will subordinate Himself to every 
religious ordinance, even to those growing out of the sins 
of the people, in which He has no share except in a cor- 
porate sense. Acting in solidarity with His people, Jesus 
could accept the water baptism of John without any feel- 
ing of personal sin, as He had already done on similar 
occasions, particularly on the occasion of His first pass- 
over festival, which, together with other parts of the Old 
Testament sacrificial system, presuppose the idea of sin. 
In the case of all others John’s baptism is preceded by the 
confession of sin (Matt. 3:6); with the sinless Nazarene, 
however, it is only an exemplification of the principle that 
it was fitting for Him “to fulfil all righteousness.” 
Strictly speaking, it is not a confessional act on the part of 
Jesus, for He has no personal confession to make; it is 
rather an act of lowly obedience to a religious duty of His 


THE CALL OF JESUS 219 


day, by which He identified Himself with the deepest re- 
ligious movement of the time. So far as the people are 
concerned, John’s baptism is symbolical of their separation 
from sin and of their readiness for the righteous rule of 
God in the Messianic age, but in the case of Jesus it is a 
symbol of separation from private life and of a consequent 
consecration to God in the office of Israel’s Messianic 
King. In other words, He recognized in the call to bap- 
tism the call of God to bring to a conclusion His life hith- 
erto devoted to His inner development and to His family, 
and to begin His public career as the Messiah of Israel. 
So, then, to Him it is really a baptism of inauguration, or 
rather an open vow of sacramental self-dedication, body 
and soul, to sacrificial service. And may there not be 
some warrant for holding that the “righteousness ” 
spoken of by Jesus in His second recorded utterance has 
reference to “the righteous Servant” of prophetic expec- 
tation, who “shall justify many, for He shall bear their 
iniquities ” (Isa. 53:11)? 

To say that the suffering Servant only dawned upon 
Jesus toward the close of His ministry is to forget that, by 
reason of His penetrating insight into the conditions of 
His time and with His knowledge of human nature, there 
must have come to Him at the very outset the strong pre- 
sentiment that the path of the Messiah would be one of 
suffering, that He would ultimately be despised and re- 
jected of men, that He must needs be wounded for the 
people’s transgressions and bruised for their iniquity. 
His study of the Scriptures told Him that. He was well 
acquainted with the rewards which had been meted out to 
the prophetic pathfinders of His people. Had the pros- 
pect been otherwise, the untimely death of John the Bap- 
tist in the early days of Christ’s ministry would have had 
an entirely different effect upon the uncompromising Gali- 
lean. Many sayings of Jesus spoken in the early days of 


220 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the Galilean ministry clearly indicate that He was not sub- 
limely ignorant or unconscious of the darker aspects of 
His mission (Matt. 5: 10 ff.; 10: 16 ff.; Mark 6:4; Matt. 
13:57; Luke 11:50). Not many weeks after Jesus began 
His ministry He uttered the words, “Can the children of 
the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? 
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken 
away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” 
(Mark 2:19). Asa matter of fact, the shadow of the 
cross had already fallen on the baptismal waters when 
Jesus was standing on the very threshold of His ministry. 
How early Jesus anticipated the cross as a part of His 
Messianic work we have not the information to decide. 
But we are reasonably certain that Jesus had the prospect 
of death before Him from His baptismal experience at the 
Jordan, where His Messianic consciousness was definitely 
born and divinely sanctioned in the manner described in 
Matt. 3: 16-17; Mark 3:10-11; and Luke 3:21-22. As 
one with humanity the sinless Nazarene, as already re- 
marked, had submitted, prior to His Messianic call on the 
banks of Jordan, to various Old Testament rites and ordi- 
nances appointed for sinners, without any personal share 
in the sin and guilt of the nation, with which He had 
become identified by His assumption of human nature. 

If it were right and proper for Him thus “to fulfil all 
righteousness,” required by law, so now it is incumbent 
upon Him to descend with the forerunner into the quick- 
flowing stream, for the hour of divine destiny had struck 
on the clock of a new age, which marks the turning-point 
in the world’s religious history. He passes into the bap- 
tismal waters, repenting and confessing the sin of the 
world, which He in loving, sacrificial service had made 
His own, and being in the attitude of prayer He emerges 
from the water as the heaven-proclaimed Messianic King, 
who is anointed for His work by the plenary gift of the 


THE CALL OF JESUS 221 


Holy Spirit. The sinlessness of Jesus and the special 
meaning of His baptism are sufficiently shown by the de- 
scending Spirit and the approving voice which He heard: 
“Thou art My Son, the beloved; in Thee I am well 
pleased.” These words combine two familiar prophetic 
utterances, which were commonly regarded as referring 
to the Messiah. The first is taken from Psalm 2:7, and 
declares Him to be the Son of God, promised in what was 
generally regarded as a Messianic psalm (See also verse 2 
in the original, where the Lord’s Anointed is spoken of as 
the Messiah, who is none other, of course, than the 
Christos of Greek terminology). The second is a quota- 
tion from one of the great “Servant” prophecies in 
Isaiah: “ Behold, My Servant, My chosen One, in whom 
I am well pleased; I have put My Spirit upon Him” 
(42:1). The Servant thus announced at the baptism of 
Jesus was not the nation Israel but the Christ of history 
who, as a single representative personality, gathered up in 
His own Person all that is highest and best in the religion 
of Israel and who, by a life of vicarious suffering (Isa. 
53) achieved that higher righteousness which it had been 
the aim of the law to achieve. He is the special object of 
God’s love, of a love such as the Father bestows upon His 
only begotten Son, because He is well pleased with Him. 
When the Spirit, like a dove, alighted upon Him, John 
knew for a certainty that He was the Messiah, as may be 
seen from John 1: 33-34, “ And I knew Him not, but He 
that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, 
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and re- 
maining on Him, the same is He that baptizeth with the 
Holy Spirit. And I saw and bare record that this is the 
Son of God.” 

The Baptist must have known that the Messiah was to 
redeem Israel from sin, for he takes occasion to point out 
to his disciples “ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 


222 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


of the world” (1:29, 36). To what extent the idea of a 
suffering Messiah had influenced the theological thinking 
of the prophet cannot be ascertained. At any rate the fig- 
ure of a lamb, which he uses in this connection, points to a 
sacrificial victim for sin. To Jesus Himself the baptismal 
flood plunging precipitately down the Jordan Valley until 
it issued into the Dead Sea may have suggested to His 
mind that other baptism to which He alludes in His an- 
swer to the question of the sons of Zebedee, when He says, 
“Are ye able to be baptized with the baptism that I am 
baptized with?” (Matt. 20:22). Referring to the bap- 
tism of death with which His ministry was to close, He 
says in another place, “I have a baptism to be baptized 
with; and how am I pained till it be accomplished!” 
(Luke 12:50). His consecration to the Messiahship at 
baptism was really a sacramental consecration to the work 
of Israel’s Redeemer. Jesus’ ideal of the suffering Servant 
of Jehovah was not the result of many painful experiences 
which came to Him in the course of His ministry; it was 
with Him, it seems, from the very beginning of His public 
career. He was a close student of Hebrew prophecy, and 
He knew that the world could be saved only by a self- 
sacrificing service that would not shrink even from death 
itself. Although Isaiah 53 had never been interpreted in a 
Messianic sense before the coming of Christ, Jesus of 
Nazareth has the great distinction of being the first to 
make the suffering Servant His Messianic ideal; and 
through Him self-sacrificing service to humanity has be- 
come the central teaching of Christianity. And so at Jor- 
dan, in the face of human need as it was represented in 
that vast multitude of penitents, He answered the Messi- 
anic call by a passionate prayer of self-dedication to sacri- 
ficial service, whatever that might involve. 

The historic call of Jesus coincides with His baptism. 
At baptism He is officially called and set apart for a life- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 2238 


work of Messianic service. By a voice made audible in 
some manner to His consciousness, the sinless Jesus is 
designated as the Messiah and there is granted to Him, for 
the fulfilment of His extraordinary mission, the measure- 
less gift of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of miracu- 
lous powers. But the exercise of that mission is deferred 
for a time by His retirement to the stony and deserted 
regions of the eastern foothills of Judah. Not far from 
the western shores of the Dead Sea there now ensued a 
terrible struggle with temptation, resulting in the rejection 
by Jesus of all self-seeking methods in the realization of 
that kingdom which He came to establish, thus parting 
company, at the very outset of His earthly career, with the 
current Messiahship of ordinary Jewish expectation. In 
the three great temptations, recorded in Matt. 4: 1-11; 
Mark 1: 12-13; and Luke 4: 1-13, the culminating point is 
reached in the preparation of Jesus for His Messianic 
career. The meaning of these temptations is obvious 
enough, since they are essentially related to each other. 
The conflict rages around one central position—the Messi- 
anic leadership of Jesus. Though each temptation has its 
own features, there is a common theme running through 
them all. In every case there is an attempt to ruin, by 
unspiritual methods, what to the mind of Jesus is a purely 
spiritual kingdom. ‘There can be no question as to the 
reality of the temptation, however one may argue as to the 
form of it. Whatever may be said with regard to the 
manner of the temptations recorded in Matthew and Luke, 
we may be absolutely certain that every one of the tempta- 
tions was a very real thing to our Lord. To say, as some 
commentators would have us believe, that the incidents 
there related must be taken in a parabolic rather than a 
strictly historical sense, does not change the fact that it is 
a real conflict that is here depicted. As it is unnecessary 
for our present purpose to discuss the critical and exe- 


224 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


getical problems connected with the gospel narratives, we 
will now endeavour to find out what the three temptations 
meant to Jesus. 

Standing upon the very threshold of His mission, Jesus 
is confronted by a choice between two opposing ways of 
fulfilling His vocation. On the one hand, there is the way 
of patient faith in God and self-denying obedience to His 
will; and on the other, the possibility of a short-cut to im- 
mediate fame by an appeal to the popular earth-born crav- 
ing for a worker of physical wonders, even if such a com- 
promise tended to give undue prominence to material and 
political considerations and so obscure, for the time being, 
the spiritual and moral elements of the divine kingdom. 
Ought He not to yield, in some measure at least, to the 
common Messianic expectations of His countrymen, who 
were looking for the bestowal upon Israel, not only of spi- 
ritual gifts but also of earthly plenty, earthly glory and 
earthly power? Could He not be true to Himself and yet 
be the kind of Messiah they expected? ‘The several temp- 
tations are only variations of the same theme. 

That the temptation is a necessary step in the prepara- 
tion of Jesus for His momentous task is quite evident 
from a glance at the Biblical narrative. All these accounts 
agree that it was the result of a divine impulse which led 
Him into the wilderness, in order there to endure a test, 
which would really be determinative of His subsequent 
Messianic activity. He meets each temptation, as we shall 
see presently, not as God who cannot be tempted, but as 
man. If the God-man was, as He must have been from all 
that we know of Him in the Gospels, a real man, He could 
not escape with a fictitious temptation. Why should Jesus 
be tempted at all, if He was not temptable? But why 
argue the point any further, when we are told that the Son 
of man, or man as God intended Him to be, “ was 
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 


THE CALL OF JESUS 225 


4:15)? It is well to remember that while Christ was per- 
fectly sinless, His temptations were as real as they are to 
any man. The incarnate Son who was uniquely endowed 
with the Spirit of God had to wrestle with all His might 
with the spirit of the world in high and low places alike. 
But with the descent of the Holy Spirit in such plenitude 
and power, there had come to Jesus the consciousness of 
His ability to work miracles. His temptations were in- 
ducements to abuse His miraculous powers for selfish ends. 

The whole temptation was a prolonged attack upon His 
miraculous powers, seeking to divert them from their in- 
tended use, which makes it more than probable that these 
God-given powers were first consciously received at bap- 
tism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in fullest 
measure. Jesus, however, regarded them as a trust to be 
held by Him in the interests of His official calling; and 
He clearly fixed in His own mind, for all practical pur- 
poses at least, the principle on which alone He would use 
those powers. His exalted consciousness of an endow- 
ment of the Spirit, so plenary and an anointing and dedi- 
cation so divine, prompted Him to use His powers for 
none other but a single end, and that the very highest. In 
carrying out the commission thus entrusted to Him, He 
will make absolutely no use of His miraculous powers 
solely for His own benefit. Since they have been given 
Him for the purpose of fulfilling His mission, they shall 
be used only in the exercise of His official calling as Mes- 
siah. He will live and work for others and not for Him- 
self. Self-sacrificing service, not self-gratification, is the 
law of His life. As an individual He will be subject to 
human limitations in common with others. On His part 
there shall be no capricious exercise of divine power for 
the sake of ostentatious display; no miracle will be per- 
formed for its own sake but only in so far as it may serve 
some higher end in the fulfilment of His mission, A fun- 


226 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


damental rule of His Messianic activity is to perform no 
miracle, unless God directs Him to perform it. To this 
end Jesus waits upon the Father until His hour is come; 
God in His own appointed time commands Him to inter- 
pose in a miraculous manner whenever necessary. 

The first temptation is based upon the great motive 
power of the world, which has given rise to the migratory 
movements of the nations of antiquity. Every student of 
history is familiar with the sad spectacle of vast multi- 
tudes of hungry people, moving westward with the irresis- 
tible force of an avalanche, in search for a more adequate 
supply of food. The pangs of hunger and the fear of 
starvation have driven men who are not naturally inhu- 
man to the extremities and inhumanities of sheer desper- 
ation. In a country like ours we have no experience of 
hunger, especially in its severer forms. But the craving 
for food must be a terrible experience, to judge from the 
testimony of those who have endured it. The first 
Messiah-test, it will be noted, addresses itself to the feel- 
ing of hunger resulting from a period of prolonged fast- 
ing. The baptismal experience had led to a Lenten season 
of solitary preparation in the lonely desert for the work of 
the immediate future. Owing to a complete absorption of 
the spirit in the mighty issues now confronting Him, Jesus 
had become totally oblivious of His bodily needs. During 
all this time the life of Jesus had in some miraculous man- 
ner been preserved. But finally, sustained spiritual eleva- 
tion and intensity of thought had to give place to the 
prosaic fact of gnawing hunger. It is to this natural 
craving for food that the first trial has special reference. 
The purpose of the first temptation is to make Jesus doubt 
His divine Sonship and turn aside from the hard path of 
duty by appropriating to His own use the miraculous 
powers with which His Father had endowed Him. Let 
Him prove His Sonship by yielding to a perfectly legiti- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 227 


mate want in a manner becoming His unique relationship 
with the Father. “If the voice at Thy baptism which 
called Thee the beloved Son in whom the Father is well 
pleased, was authentic and real, make use of the preroga- 
tives of One so highly favoured and supply your phys- 
ical wants.” 

Surely it cannot be the will of God that this beloved Son 
should become weak and emaciated with hunger when a 
single word of creative power might change a barren wil- 
derness into a very paradise! If it is to be His mission to 
inaugurate a new era and if He is to meet the needs of 
others, He ought certainly be able to satisfy His own 
wants. If His miraculous power can be used for the 
benefit of others, why should He not draw upon the same 
source in the emergencies of His own life? To meet His 
present need He ought to be able to convert the very stones 
of the desert into bread, for here is a special emergency 
calling for the exercise of the special powers which one 
would expect to be at His disposal. Failure on His part 
to accomplish that much under the present circumstances 
means, without the shadow of a doubt, that He cannot 
possibly be that heaven-ordained Messiah to whom mirac- 
ulous powers have been entrusted. All that is needed in 
this case is an easy exertion of His divinely given power 
and the whole scene will be changed. Does a man owe no 
duty to Himself? Is the duty of self-preservation any less 
sacred than that of working for the good of society? 
Would it not be easy for Him, who at a more opportune 
time transformed the waterpots of Cana into vessels of 
wine and who multiplied a few loaves and fishes into food 
for multitudes, to turn the loaf-like stones lying about 
Him in the desert into actual loaves of wholesome bread? 
It would be natural for Him to do so, distressed as He was 
by hunger. 

And yet, why did He not do it? Because His super- 


228 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


natural powers were not to be used for any personal pur- 
poses at all, however natural and innocent in themselves. 
He can perform miracles whenever God, in the fulfilment 
of His mission, desires it, but He must not turn His Mes- 
sianic privileges to His own advantage. In strict obedi- 
ence to His Father’s will He is bound to wait for God’s 
own appointed hour and then it is time to act, not before. 
Meanwhile the loaf-like stone in the desert must remain a 
stone, for God’s creative word had made it such. He will 
act in harmony with the eternal word and will. He must 
not by any wilful act of His own take Himself out of the 
hands of His heavenly Father and manifest distrust in His 
providential goodness. To permit bodily cravings to take 
precedence over the great concerns of the Messianic king- 
dom would be nothing short of apostasy. That would be 
equivalent to a lack of faith in God to whose care He was 
definitely committed. And besides, why should the Son 
of God who has thoroughly identified Himself with hu- 
manity by taking upon Himself our nature, refuse to live 
a human life under human conditions? His entrance into 
human life would be a mockery and He would cease to be 
man, if all difficulties and dangers could be evaded by a 
quick appeal to His supernatural power. Whatever 
power over nature He may possess on the divine side of 
His nature, must be held in abeyance in His state of hu- 
miliation, whenever His own interests are at stake. On 
the physical side, He places Himself on a level with the 
weakest of men by dedicating all His extraordinary pow- 
ers to beneficent uses only. He had taken His place among 
human beings and would not separate Himself from them 
by erecting a wall of divinity around His humanity. They 
could not convert stones into bread; neither will He, if it 
is a question of His own comfort. The temptation, it will 
be observed, is addressed to His divinity in the form of a 
hypothetical statement, calling in question heaven’s own 


THE CALL OF JESUS 229 


proclamation on the banks of the river concerning the 
choice of Jesus, the Son of God, to be the Messiah; “If 
thou art the Son of God, command that these stones be- 
come bread.” | 

But Jesus refuses to remove the insinuation of doubt as 
to His Messiahship, not only because He had no intention 
of forestalling the providence of God, but also because He 
did not wish to satisfy the popular craving for a bread- 
king. Be it remarked in passing, that this temptation in 
the wilderness confronted Him in concrete shape in the 
midst of His career, when the people in their desire for a 
national Messiah who would appease their hunger and 
satisfy their material cravings, sought to make Him a 
king. But He rejected their overtures, because He knew 
that there are deeper needs in the heart of humanity than 
the want of bread. Owing to their relatively greater im- 
portance, God would take infinitely greater delight in satis- 
fying these needs than the gratification of merely physical 
desires. Material proofs of His Messiahship would not 
lead to that repentance and faith, insisted upon by Jesus 
as necessary prerequisites to entrance into the kingdom. 
What could be better than a complete change of heart and 
life, what could be more desirable than the driving power 
of a dynamic faith, producing the fruits of self-sacrificing 
love to God and man! Nothing will be gained by stooping 
to the unspiritual level of popular hopes and desires. To 
yield in the present instance to the instinctive desire for 
food by the exercise of divine power, would have been 
something quite different from the Biblical idea of a mir- 
acle. Such a course would have degraded the miracle into 
the heathen conception of material magic, which was called 
into play without any moral purpose whatever. To Jesus, 
however, the issue is clear-cut. For had He not been 
driven into the wilderness by a divine impulse? If that is 
so, the circumstances in which He now found Himself 


230 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


must be of God’s own appointment. Consequently He 
will do nothing to controvert the will of Him that 
brought Him hither. If the first Adam doubted and dis- 
obeyed, He will put His trust in the sustaining power of 
faith in God. 

If the first great temptation is addressed to His divin- 
ity, He will answer it in His humanity by an appeal 
to Scripture and take His stand on that. This much any 
man could do. As a pious Israelite who believed in the 
Scriptures, Jesus conquers by faith in the sustaining power 
of God’s Word. He replies, not with an answer of His 
own, but with a singularly apt quotation from Deuter- 
onomy 8:3; “It is written, Man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God.” In fact, all three temptations are over- 
come by quotations from Deuteronomy taken from pas- 
sages found in the “‘ Jewish catechism” immediately fol- 
lowing the ancient creed concerning the belief in the only 
one God, the earliest religious lesson, and the daily morn- 
ing prayer of His boyhood, all of which points to the last- 
ing value of His early religious training. We also recog- 
nize in the passage quoted one of the themes upon which 
Jesus had been thinking during His prolonged desert fast, 
and from which He doubtless derived much strength for 
the ordeal through which He had to go. The reference in 
Deuteronomy 8:3 is to a parallel experience in the desert 
wanderings of Israel. The scene of the present temptation 
and His miraculous preservation during a period of forty 
days in which He had been without food, reminded Jesus 
of Israel’s sojourn in the desert for a period of forty 
years. There is good reason in this particular instance for 
comparing the forty days to forty years in view of a similar 
comparison in Numbers 14: 33-34, where mention is made 
of.the forty years’ sojourn in the desert “according to the 
number of the days in which ye searched the land, even 


THE CALL OF JESUS 231 


forty days, each day for a year.” What Israel, elsewhere 
referred to as “My son” (Hos, 11:1; Matt. 2:15), 
should have learned from these experiences, Jesus, the true 
Son of God, learned from the experiences of the past. In 
Exodus 4: 22-23, Israel’s relation to Jehovah is compared 
to that of a highly favoured son. Here Moses is com- 
manded to speak unto Pharaoh saying, “ Thus saith Jeho- 
vah, Israel is My son, My firstborn. And I say unto thee, 
Let My son go that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse 
to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn.” 
But Israel subsequently became an undutiful son, who 
had to be brought under the rod of God’s chastisements in 
the desert. ‘“ And thou shalt remember all the way which 
Jehovah thy God led thee these forty years in the wilder- 
ness to humble thee and prove thee, in order to ascertain 
what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His 
commandments or no. And He humbled thee, and suf- 
fered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou 
knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might 
cause thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
Jehovah.” According to this passage in Deuteronomy 
8:2, 3, Israel should have learned that man does not live 
exclusively on the ordinary means of subsistence, “ but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah,” 
that is to say, God can in His own way sustain life at one 
time by raining down upon His people, in response to a 
definite need, the unknown manna round about the camp 
of Israel and, at another, provide the inner man with spi- 
ritual manna for the nourishment of his real self. Refer- 
ence is made in the author’s impressive review of Israel’s 
desert experiences to the apprehensions and fears of the 
people in view of the danger of starvation which seemed 
to threaten them. But here was Israel in the desert at the 
call of duty, God Himself having commanded the Exodus 


232 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


from Egypt. They lacked bread and God sent the manna. 
That unknown food should have taught them the lesson 
that human life does not altogether depend on the physical 
bread which they already know but upon whatever provi- 
dential means God may have in store for them in order to 
satisfy their complex wants. They ought to know that a 
life lived in conscious fellowship with God must have 
more than things which are known and seen and handled 
by the organs of sense, for a man’s life ought not to be 
merely that of the beast nibbling in the sun—one long for- 
age for bodily food. His real life consists in obedience to 
the will of God as he may come to know that will in the 
course of a religious experience which has come under the 
guiding influence of God’s Word, whether spoken or 
written. 

Jesus in the barren stony desert west of the Jordan was 
for many days not conscious of His need of earthly bread 
because of His complete absorption in spiritual things, and 
yet He had been sustained throughout that lengthened fast. 
His meat was to do the will of God who had sent Him on 
His mission. High and holy thoughts had fed His hungry 
soul and the claims of the body were forgotten. Though 
faint with hunger at the end of forty days, Jesus rises to 
the consciousness of a higher need than the satisfaction of 
natural hunger. He must do His Father’s will. He will 
not partake of any food which God had not provided, 
whether by natural or miraculous means. He, too, has 
been led into the wilderness by divine compulsion along 
the pathway of duty. He, too, will wait on God as Israel 
of old waited for the word that brought them food. The 
manner in which this is to be accomplished is left entirely 
to divine initiative. There is no need on His part for the 
exercise of miraculous power for, as we have already seen, 
the God-man by taking upon Himself our nature is de- 
barred from using the resources of His divine nature to 


THE CALL OF JESUS 233 


raise Him above the common wants of men. He will do 
what any other man can do: wait upon God and trust Him 
most implicitly. At the end of the ordeal His faith is 
amply rewarded. We are told that angels came and min- 
istered to His temporal necessities. 

But faith in God may become sheer folly the moment it 
encroaches upon the dangerous borderland of presump- 
tion. Faith is not credulity. A fool-hardy faith always 
courts the danger of being dashed to the ground. This is 
the aim of the next temptation, as recorded in Matthew 
4:5-7, but which in Luke’s account is placed last, the sec- 
ond and third temptations being reversed, possibly because 
Luke was dependent upon the oral tradition of some of 
those who had heard Jesus give an account of the several 
temptations but who repeated what they heard from mem- 
ory in different ways. We believe, however, that the order 
of Matthew’s account is to be given the preference, since 
the reversed order in Luke cannot be said to be an im- 
provement on Matthew. It may be that Luke regarded 
the second temptation as the most severe, clothed as it was 
in the garb of a divine oracle, and hence the inversion of 
the order. 

In the pinnacle temptation the attack is directed against 
the very thing on which Jesus had taken His stand in 
meeting the first temptation. He refused, as we have al- 
ready pointed out, to appropriate to selfish ends the re- 
demptive powers of Israel’s Messiah. So far as His 
earthly needs were concerned, the Man of Galilee had 
substituted the wants and limitations of human existence 
for the divine prerogatives of His unique Sonship. Con- 
sequently, He will not, to satisfy His own hunger, convert 
a single stone into bread. If such a miracle is to be 
wrought in the present instance, God alone can perform it. 
He will have faith in the God of history. If manna was 
provided in the wilderness to sustain a hungry people in a 


234 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


land unsown, surely God would in some way make provi- 
sion for the temporal wants of Jesus at such a crisis as this. 
Moreover, man—the whole man—does not live by bread 
alone, but by every life-giving word that proceedeth from 
the Giver of every good and perfect gift, whether physical 
or spiritual. He is in God’s hands. He had not sought 
the wilderness on His own initiative. Had not the Spirit, 
coming upon Him in the full revelation of His call, driven 
Him into the stony desert for a period of reflection and 
probation, prior to. the beginning of His public ministry? 
That being so, He will trust God to the uttermost. At the 
call of duty He will depend on God most unreservedly and 
obey the leadings of His Spirit without the shadow of a. 
doubt. in God’s ability to help. He has helped in times 
past, He will help now, for remember, “It is written.” 
The Son’s implicit trust in the Father, it will be ob- 
served, furnishes the basis of the present attack. As in the 
first temptation, we again meet with the same initial note 
of doubt in the divine Sonship of Israel’s Messiah, “ If 
thou art the Son of God.” If He is, then let Him prove it 
publicly, in the presence of Israel’s leaders and of the wor- 
shipping congregation in the temple area, by doing some- 
thing that would attract immediate attention. The people 
everywhere would forthwith recognize His claim and for- 
get the humble carpenter shop in Nazareth from which 
He came. No other credentials would be needed than to 
make some signal display of His Messianic powers. Why 
hesitate, when it would advance His work by leaps and 
bounds? Remember, this is the temple, the earthly habita- 
tion of the Lord; within its sacred precincts God will per- 
mit no lapse of His promise to take place, least of all in the 
case of His Son who, by His refusal to do a selfish thing, 
has already given a remarkable demonstration of His faith 
in the providence of God. But having refused to think of 
Himself, let Him now think of the people and of their 


THE CALL OF JESUS 235 


needs. How laudable of the Son to have complete faith in 
the Father and to wait upon Him, where His own inter- 
ests are at stake. But now He can be of real service to the 
people and advance His work tremendously by a faith that 
takes God at His Word. Now is the time to test that faith 
in the interests of altruism and see how great His faith 
really is. The appeal, in the second temptation, is to the 
faith of Jesus in the inviolability of God’s promises with- 
out reference to the context or to some other passage of 
Scripture, which might throw considerable light on the 
subject, the object, of course, being to lose sight of the 
fact that such promises are generally coupled with certain 
conditions—expressed or implied—which must be met 
before the promise can be fulfilled. 

Thus, by an act of absolute faith and boundless trust in 
the Father, Jesus is to cast Himself down from the pin- 
nacle of the temple. ‘“‘ For it is written, He shall give His 
angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee, and on their 
hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply thou dash thy 
foot against a stone.’ It is interesting to note that an 
attempt is made to neutralize the quotation from Deuter- 
onomy 8:3 by a quotation from Psalm 91: 11-12, reading 
as follows, “ He shall give His angels charge concerning 
thee, to guard thee in all thy ways; on their hands they 
shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” 
Why the above quotation from the ninety-first Psalm 
should appear in an abbreviated form is not quite clear, 
unless the “ ways’”’ spoken of in the original might have 
reminded Jesus of the fact that man’s ways are not of his 
own choosing ; they are of God’s own appointment. They 
cannot be the self-chosen ways of human arrogance and 
spiritual pride, for all such ways are “ outlawed” in the 
religion of Israel. The religious man must order his life 
according to the known ways of God and the attempt to 
substitute his own ways for the ways of God would be 


33 


236 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


nothing short of apostasy. In the realm of religion, man’s 
ways and the ways of God must coalesce, otherwise God’s 
promises are null and void. So, for example, it does not 
require much reflection on the: part of Jesus to know that 
to cast Himself down from the temple heights would not 
be in line with God’s plan of salvation. The progressive 
unfoldment of the kingdom of God on earth is not the 
work of a moment, nor is it the result of an astounding 
feat in the physical universe. 

The cause of the Messiah is not served by guilty haste 
in trying to expedite the slow processes of the kingdom. 
The true way of God’s Anointed is the way of loving, 
sacrificial service and of utter self-effacement. If others, 
by their own impetuosity and impatience, have tried to 
force the hand of the Almighty, He will resist that temp- 
tation. Jesus has the fullest confidence in the ability and 
willingness of the Father to interpose in His behalf, when 
it is for the best interests of the kingdom, but He will not 
begin His ministry as a worker of physical wonders merely 
to satisfy the vulgar desire for something new and sensa- 
tional in religion. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. 
Outward display can effect no real spiritual change in 
men’s hearts and lives. The Messianic kingdom must 
make its strongest appeal to the heart, conscience, and will 
of the individual. While the eye-gate may have its place 
in religion, our greatest visions are seen by the eye of faith. 
These are spiritual and have more to do with the spiritual 
renewal of the inner life than anything else on earth. And 
yet faith must never degenerate into wilful arrogance and 
impious presumption. Spiritual pride is always fatal to 
religion. Absolute confidence and trust in God is an in- 
tegral part of faith, but to plunge ahead in the religious 
life without paying heed to the known ways of God is not 
faith but blind fatalism. Let no man, in such a case, pre- 
sume on the promises of God! The divine promises are 


THE CALL OF JESUS 237 


conditional. There must be no wilful or persistent devi- 
ation from God’s will. By the doing of His will we put 
ourselves in line with His gracious promises. 

Jesus knew that it was not God’s will that the kingdom 
should come suddenly as by a stroke of magic or that He 
should leap from the pinnacle of the temple amid the ap- 
plause of the acclaiming multitude. The people clamoured 
for signs. They thought that the coming Messiah would 
do something striking to inaugurate His mission. This 
expectation was the forerunner of such temptations in His 
after-life as the demand of the people to show them signs 
and wonders that they might believe in His claims. Shall 
He gratify the popular demand for a wonder-working 
Messiah whose credentials shall be based upon miraculous 
acts, sensational devices and sensuous thrills? According 
to the apocryphal Messianic dreams with which the re- 
ligious atmosphere of the time was filled, the Messiah was 
to appear suddenly and in some marvellous way as, for in- 
stance, by a leap from the temple roof into the midst of 
the crowds assembled below. Would such a public dis- 
play of His faith in God and of His miraculous power lead 
to the fulfilment of the divine promise contained in this 
portion of the Psalm? The divine promise of protection 
and guardianship is indeed assured to every trusting child 
of God, but only in so far as “ thy ways” are “ His ways.” 
Since “ My ways” are not “your ways,’ man must not 
choose his own course of life without reference to the re- 
vealed will of God. ‘Thus, we may be sure that to startle 
sense-bound men into sudden faith by the dazzling spec- 
tacle of a miraculous descent into the superstitious throng 
would be contrary to God’s way of doing things. Such an 
acrobatic feat, even within the sacred enclosure, might 
dazzle the senses and arouse the awe of the gaping multi- 
tude, but no mere physical wonder could ever in itself lead 
to a real dynamic faith in the Son of God. 


3) 


288 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


The endeavour to gain popularity by such means would 
have been fatal to the Messiah and His work. An effer- 
vescent religious movement would have been the result. 
Jesus was not satisfied with the superficialities of the pop- 
ular demand. Merely to scratch the surface of things and 
leave untouched the larger possibilities of religion was 
nothing short of disloyalty to God’s plan of salvation for 
the Messianic age. Jesus had a higher duty to perform 
than to seek His own glory or force the hand of the Al- 
mighty by a presumptuous act. He will resort to no com- 
promise with present duty for the sake of immediate re- 
sults. Such a course would be hazardous in the extreme. 
At best it could lead only to superficial results, leaving no 
permanent gains for the cause of true religion. The path 
of duty, though it may ultimately lead to the cross, is the 
only path of safety. Not even the Son of God can deviate 
from the divine plan of salvation in its relation to the 
Messianic King of Hebrew prophecy. Nothing shall mar 
His obedience to the will of God. He is ready to serve 
and suffer, and if need be, to do and die. He, therefore, 
thrusts aside the impious suggestion and meets Scripture 
quoted with a bias by a word of rebuke from Deuter- 
onomy 6:16, where it is written, “ Thou shalt not make 
trial of the Lord thy God.” In the period of the desert 
wanderings Israel, on more than one occasion, provoked 
the wrath of Jehovah by murmuring against the supposed 
inadequacy of divine providence. They could not forget 
the fleshpots of Egypt and the abundant water supply of 
the Nile Delta. Prompted by impatience and a sinful dis- 
trust in the whole course of events constituting part and 
parcel of their desert experiences, “ they tempted Jehovah, 
saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?” (Ex.17:7). They 
doubted God’s presence, because of His failure to antici- 
pate, all along the way, by a series of miraculous deeds, the 
bodily needs of His people. They required a supernatural 


THE CALL OF JESUS 239 


proof of His presence. They were not satisfied with God’s 
way of doing things. Consequently they were not willing 
to trust and obey. They wanted to force the issue and 
precipitate a crisis, to see if God would not meet, in a 
miraculous manner, the need of the hour. 

Similar conduct on the part of Jesus to that exhibited by 
the Israelites at Massah and Meribah would not have been 
a proof of His absolute faith in God, but rather an act of 
insubordination and defiance of the will of God. It is one 
thing to trust, another to tempt. We cannot trust God too 
implicitly while we are walking in the path marked out for 
us by a benign providence, but to choose our own path and 
thrust ourselves into perilous positions in order to force a 
miracle from God, this is sheer folly and fanaticism. For 
Jesus to cast Himself down from a wing of the temple, 
merely for the sake of empty display, is to put God to the 
test under’ conditions which do not call for divine inter- 
vention. His refusal, therefore, to tempt God in this 
manner does not point to a lack of faith on His part; in- 
deed, it is a proof of His obedient trust in the adequacy of 
the divine plan of salvation. No other is needed. Man- 
made methods cannot improve upon it. Though sorely 
beset on every hand by human ignorance and spiritual un- 
preparedness, Jesus will nevertheless address Himself, in 
God’s own chosen way, to the fulfilment of His mission. 
The phantom of earthly success, purchased to all seeming 
at the cost of a trivial compromise, will have no charm for 
Him. The way of men and the quick road of a compro- 
mising attitude will have no place in the divine program. 

In the first temptation, as has already been pointed out, 
the appeal is to the physical instinct of self-preservation 
and bodily gratification ; in the second, to a perverted use 
of the religious instinct in keeping with the unwholesome 
demands of the dull-souled populace for signs and won- 
ders necessitating miraculous help for what is born of 


240 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


human pride and presumption; and in the third, to a po- 
litical substitute for the spiritual kingdom of the Messianic 
age. St. Luke, for reasons of his own, inverts the order 
of St. Matthew, giving as the second temptation what the 
older tradition places last. The third of these temptations 
was that of empire, or of a national Messiah founding a 
world-kingdom by a series of political achievements. It 
presents a short-cut to a universal monarchy by methods 
corresponding with those in use among the kingdoms of 
the world. All these may be His, if He will only give up 
His spiritual conception of the rule of God on earth and 
fulfil the current national expectations that were beating 
strong in the heart of every Jewish patriot. For centuries 
the Jews had looked forward to a Golden Age, when God’s 
rule should be complete and the oppression inflicted upon 
them by pagan nations would cease forever. The coming 
Messiah loomed up in their distorted fancy as a political 
deliverer, Under the leadership of David’s greater Son 
the dominant Roman power was to be overthrown by a 
popular uprising, accompanied by miraculous intervention 
in behalf of the oppressed. Little did the people realize 
that the coming kingdom was to bring relief from spiri- 
tual, rather than political, slavery and that Jesus would be 
more concerned with the ills common to humanity perma- 
nent and universal, than with the political grievances of 
His people. 

That in the ultimate issue His work would embrace the 
world, was a fact present to the consciousness of Israel’s 
Messiah from the very first. But He has no desire to be- 
come the popular Messiah of political agitators nor to dig 
for the foundations of His kingdom amid the quicksands 
of pagan politics. If His kingdom is to endure the change 
and decay of pagan empires and of earthly kingdoms in 
general, He must build on the solid rock of God’s unerring 
purposes. His kingdom is spiritual and not something 


THE CALL OF JESUS 241 


gross and earthly. It cannot be established on the shifting 
sands of Machiavellian politics. The influence He is 
seeking is not that of political power or brute material 
force, but a spiritual influence which shall permeate society 
by the leavening process of individual attraction. He will 
build up the kingdom from within, laying the foundations 
deep as eternity and as wide as the universal plan of God, 
and not begin at the outside by building up a great shell of 
external conformity to religion and then fill it with the 
inner reality. To begin the building process from without 
instead of from within would be to imitate the example of 
the “ whited sepulchres ” sitting in the seat of Moses, or 
of the proud Herodians who thought more of their Roman 
citizenship and of doing homage to the court of Czsar 
than of their spiritual birthright. How different is the 
plan of Jesus from that which obsessed His race and in 
the end lured them on to their destruction in the tragic 
years of 69 and 70 a. pv. Had they followed the leadership 
of their Messiah instead of listening to political agitators, 
like Bar-Cochba, they might have been spared the pain and 
humiliation of a disastrous campaign against the Romans 
some sixty years later (132-135 a. p.). 

From the very first Jesus declined to have anything to 
do with political affairs, since the current Messianic hope 
had degenerated into fanatical visions of a glorious earthly 
kingdom under the leadership of Israel’s Messiah. His 
kingdom was not of this world; it was primarily spiritual. 
Consequently He stood aloof from the ways of the world, 
avoiding the plots and plans of unspiritual men in their 
mad struggle for political power. The crown, indeed, was 
to be gained, but only by a life of self-sacrifice and the 
way of the cross. He, therefore, refused to accept the 
world’s way to a temporal kingdom, preferring the spiri- 
tual conquest of human hearts by a life of loving service 
to the temporary rewards of imperialism. He might have 


242 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


attained a measure of immediate success without much 
difficulty, without self-sacrifice, without the exercise of so 
much patience before He could hope to rule over an empire 
of hearts and lives, had He been willing to bow to the uni- 
versal Jewish conception of the coming kingdom as a vast 
structure of material force. This is the meaning of the 
third temptation with its promise of world-power over the 
nations of the earth. From the summit of a high mountain 
Jesus obtains a passing glimpse of the kingdoms of the in- 
habited earth lying at His feet. In that panorama one 
would naturally expect to find the Holy Land, then divided 
into several petty principalities and the provinces of the 
Roman empire comprising many conquered kingdoms. A 
rapid survey of the eastern portion of it would have in- 
cluded the descendants of the once powerful empires of 
Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, India and China; to the north, 
one would see the lands once peopled by the Israelites of 
the southern and northern kingdoms, and still farther 
north, the inhabitants of Damascus and the nomadic 
hordes of Scythia; to the south, the liberty-loving Arabs, 
the polished Egyptians and the sunburnt dwellers of Ethi- 
opia and Libya; and to the west, the philosophic Greeks, 
the proud Romans and the tribes of Europe. , 
All these kingdoms, centring in the city of the seven 
hills whose roads stretch to the watery confines of earth, 
shall belong to Jesus and be subject to His rule, if He will 
but consent to a compromise with evil, and use unholy 
means to accomplish His ends. According to the gospel 
narrative Jesus is recognized by the tempter as seeking a 
universal kingdom, as intending, indeed, to found one. 
The tempter shows Him “ all the kingdoms of the world ” 
in all their glory and strength, their beauty and natural 
attractiveness, suggesting at the same time how a glorious 
supremacy over this plurality of kingdoms might be 
gained and won at once by an act of homage to the ruler 


THE CALL OF JESUS 243 


of a sinful world. Though the “prince of this world” 
exercises a measure of control over the hearts of sinful 
men in the present state of the world, his claim to absolute 
authority and ownership over all created life is not sur- 
prising in view of the deceitfulness of sin. “‘ To Thee will 
I give all this authority for it hath been delivered unto 
me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” His claim is that 
of usurped dominion exercised by a tyrant master over 
slaves led captive by him at his will. All the powers and 
rights vested in this pretender to world-dominion shall be 
transferred to Jesus if He will but fall down at his feet 
and recognize his authority. “ All these things,” he says, 
“will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down” and do homage 
to me as your superior. 

It is as if the tempter had said, “ You are the divinely 
chosen Messiah, but you are a king without a throne. I 
will show you the way to a throne surpassing that of 
Cyrus, Alexander or Cesar. In building up your kingdom 
learn a lesson from the way in which earthly kingdoms 
have been established. The secret of their greatness lies 
in their ability to utilize, to the fullest extent, the political 
forces of their day, and throw about them, in the form of 
a political orgariization, the iron ring of military prowess 
and of earthly might. Take, for example, the Roman em- 
pire. Yonder there in Italy lives the emperor of the 
world, who is a firm believer in the principle that might is 
right. His procurator in Cesarea is a time-serving, vacil- 
lating politician, who is always thinking of number one, 
and that is why he gets on in the world. In Galilee virtue 
is crucified and yet lustful Herod contrives to reign be- 
cause he, too, has learned to put his trust, not in exalted 
religious principles but in chariots and horsemen and in the 
arts of political trickery. Everywhere, no matter where 
you look, unscrupulous politicians are in the ascendant. 
Political prestige is won by worldly methods and not by 


244 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


religious idealism. You must make some concession to the 
prevailing spirit of worldliness, if your Messianic program 
is to succeed. Do not be too consistently religious, and do 
not take the purely spiritual aspect of your kingdom too 
seriously. If you do the religious leaders of your own 
nation will reject you. The leaders in Jerusalem—who 
are they? Men who are great in things external, advo- 
cating political rather than spiritual liberation by a resort 
to arms in the name of religion. You want to establish a 
spiritual kingdom, but it is hopeless to effect this by acting 
on men individually and spiritually. With your Messianic 
powers coupled with a generous admixture of worldliness, 
you will soon be able to build up for yourself an earthly 
kingdom which shall embrace the world. Learn to rule 
like other men, even though you are to rule on a grander 
scale, and make subservient to your Messianic purpose the 
means and methods of Cesar and your success will be 
swift and sure.” 

But Jesus despised the wretched qualities of the time- 
honoured politician,—sordid manipulation, compromise 
and the exaltation of expediency above principle. Po- 
litical sagacity and worldly wisdom might suggest the 
short-cut way of forceful self-assertion and the way of 
the political conqueror to a throne like that of Cesar, in 
which might should take the place of right and force the 
place of love. But to establish the Messianic kingdom at 
the expense of a compromise with evil principles would 
have been a form of devil-worship, robbing the kingdom 
of heaven of its true character and converting it into a 
kingdom of earth under earthly conditions and earthly 
laws. This kingdom was to be something better than the 
Roman empire, something more permanent than any 
earthly form of government, While the attitude of Jesus 
toward the Roman government was one of respect, as may 
be seen, among other things, from the answer which He 


THE CALL OF JESUS 245 


gave to the question concerning the tribute money, He 
must refuse to build His kingdom on what is at best but a 
tottering empire, especially when compared with the 
eternal character of Christ’s kingdom. Though He was 
subject to “the powers that be,” rejecting on more than 
one occasion the revolutionary ideas of His Jewish con- 
temporaries, history teaches that the Messianic kingdom 
will not blend with any earthly kingdom and that the dura- 
tion of earthly kingdoms and empires is in proportion to 
their ability to discharge their God-given function. 

The kingdom of Saul, for example, was of divine ap- 
pointment but the kingdom was taken from Saul and 
another anointed in his stead the moment he stooped to 
self-seeking methods and egotistic self-aggrandizement. 
The ship of state in the reign of David almost suffered 
shipwreck, but the king repented of his wickedness, and 
although the threatened punishment was mitigated and 
postponed for the time being, this sinful act was punished 
in one way or another in the subsequent history of the 
Davidic dynasty. The kingship in Israel’s after days went 
down to defeat and ruin because the leaders of the nation 
had sought an earthly substitute for the kingdom of God. 
The kingdom of God, like the earth itself, is “ founded on 
righteous foundations.” ‘The very powers, alluded to by 
the apostle Paul in the thirteenth chapter of Romans, dis- 
appeared before the spiritual solvent of Christianity, be- 
fore the two-edged sword of a more spiritual conception 
of government. A political revolution in the time of Jesus 
or of Paul would have been positively injurious to the 
cause of Christianity, and besides, it was entirely unneces- 
sary ; the impact of Christianity upon the life and thought 
of the nations was such as to react in one form or another ° 
upon every domain of life, political, social and religious. 
The Roman government of Paul’s day is no more; the 
Holy Roman empire and many modern governments have 


x) 


246 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


suffered a like fate. Things are so constituted that when 
governments no longer serve God-given ends, they inevi- 
tably crumble away and disintegrate by a law inherent in 
the historical process. Since God has at no time abdicated 
the throne of the universe it is sufficient to know that He 
rules the world in accordance with certain divine prin- 
ciples, which never lose their efficacy. The kingdom of 
God in the very nature of the case can brook no compro- 
mise with the world. If there is to be any levelling done 
at all, it must be a levelling up to the lofty plane of the 
kingdom of God; there can be no levelling down on the 
part of that kingdom to earthly standards. 

‘The very suggestion to the contrary is regarded by Jesus 
as a temptation to pursue the path of political achievement 
as a means of overcoming opposition to the establishment 
of His kingdom. To yield to the evil suggestion would 
have been a violation of the fundamental law in Deuter- 
onomy 6:13, in which God demands the exclusive service 
and worship of mankind. This clever appeal to earthly 
ambition, showing that the goal to a universal empire is 
comparatively easy of attainment, provided Jesus will ac- 
commodate His plans to the needs of a worldly atmos- 
phere, is met with the stinging rebuke, “ Get thee hence, 
Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God and Him only shalt thou serve.” Submission to the 
will of any creature and all that it stands for, is rank idol- 
atry and, therefore, treason against God. But there will 
be no turning aside on the part of Jesus from the divine 
purpose, nor any detachment of His will from the Father’s 
will. There is to be perfect agreement and harmony be- 
tween Father and Son. The service and worship that is 
demanded for God alone shall be the motto of His king- 
dom. There is not the slightest doubt in His mind that 
the kingdom must be established by spiritual forces alone 
and defended by spiritual weapons. With unfailing in- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 247 


sight and unfaltering will He turned away from the path 
of earthly glory and chose the path that ultimately led to 
cross-crowned Calvary, transfigured and forever sanctified 
by a love which was no less than divine. Thus the third 
temptation, suggesting an unwise course of action, is over- 
come and Jesus is ready to begin His public ministry. 
Then the tempter left Him “ for a season,” and returned 
personified now as Peter, now as Judas, and again as 
the Jews. 

Having definitely ascertained the principles which are to 
guide His work, Jesus, after thirty years of preparation, is 
ready to undertake His God-given task. His victory over 
the three temptations, already discussed, makes it clear 
that He shall live and work for others, trusting to the slow 
but sure processes of moral and spiritual forces, since 
these alone can change the hearts and lives of men. One 
thing, moreover, is quite certain, and that is, that the Mes- 
siah is above all a spiritual King and not an earthly poten- 
tate. This means that He must correct the erroneous 
notions of the majority of His countrymen regarding the 
Messiah, and prepare them for the coming of a spiritual 
kingdom. Although absolutely convinced of His Messiah- 
ship, as may be seen from the foregoing accounts of His 
baptism and temptation, Jesus refrained for a time from 
declaring Himself to be the Messiah, fearing that a pre- 
mature declaration would find His countrymen utterly un- 
prepared for the message which He was about to bring to 
them. The work of preparation, inaugurated by the fore- 
runner, must be continued, especially now that the fearless 
prophet has been slain by wicked hands. In the opening 
chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus begins His Galilean 
ministry, “ preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The 
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; re- 
pent ye and believe in the gospel” (compare Matt. 4:17). 

A spiritual kingdom demands spiritual preparedness. 


248 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Such a kingdom cannot be established by an act of power 
on the part of God in the forms of the national theocracy, 
but solely through a spiritual activity, the success of which 
depends upon the condition of the heart. 

If what is primarily a spiritual kingdom is to take form 
at all, it must be realized first of all, within the hearts of 
men through a religious and ethical regeneration of the 
people at large. Jesus demands a change of heart and a 
faithful acceptance of the good tidings which He brings. 
The call to repentance implies, as we have seen, a change 
of mind and a complete reversal of one’s thoughts and in- 
ner motives. This command of Jesus involves a change 
of heart and life, or a turning away from self to a life of 
unselfishness. To turn away from self and a world of sin 
and to go back to God, that is repentance. The emphasis 
is upon a right attitude of the heart rather than upon the 
external act. Under proper conditions the kingdom of 
God, which is entered by the gateway of repentance and 
faith, becomes a present possession, not through revolu- 
tionary changes in the external conditions of life, or 
through upheavals, paroxysms, and miraculous interven- 
tions. This kingdom is a kingdom of true love, in which 
the Father’s will is enthroned in the hearts of men, 
prompting every one of its subjects to obey the law of 
loving service for the good of all. It is about to be real- 
ized in the hearts of men; indeed, “the time is fulfilled, 
and the kingdom of God is at hand.” 

This is the glad message which Jesus proclaimed at the 
beginning of His ministry. What is meant by the term 
“Gospel ” is evident from that memorable discourse in the 
synagogue at Nazareth, where the Nazarene announces the 
fulfilment of prophecy and Himself as fulfilling it. Ac- 
cording to the fourth chapter of St. Luke, Jesus, on His 
arrival in Nazareth, went as usual to the synagogue. He 
stood up to read and selected a passage from the sixty- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 249 


first chapter of Isaiah descriptive of the Messiah’s benefi- 
cent work, thereby expounding to His fellow-citizens a 
part of that gospel which it was His mission to proclaim. 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath 
anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He hath 
sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to 
the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord. . . . Today hath this scripture been ful- 
filled in your ears.” That day, the silver trumpet of a far 
better jubilee was sounded, announcing the beginning of 
the Messianic age. The primary reference of the proph- 
ecy is to the return of the Hebrew captives in Babylonia 
to their native land. According to the twenty-fifth chapter 
of Leviticus, where the year of jubilee, to which Jesus 
refers, is described, the trumpet of jubilee is to be sounded 
at the end of seven seven-year periods and all transactions 
in landed property for the fifty years previous shall be 
revoked. Ancestral property, temporarily disposed of 
under the pressure of necessity, shall be restored to its 
original possessors or their descendants, for the posses- 
sions of a Hebrew household or clan are not to be alienated 
in perpetuity. The redistribution in the jubilee of all an- 
cestral holdings contributed to the re-establishment of the 
original arrangement regarding assignments of land to the 
households and clans of Israel. 

Closely associated with the legislative enactments with 
respect to landed property is the subject of property in 
slaves. The servile class, be it remarked in passing, was 
frequently augmented by insolvent debtors, who had sold 
themselves into servitude to work off a debt. The law 
treats of both forms of property—property in land and in 
slaves—under the same head ; both shall be subject to simi- 
lar regulations. The periodic redistribution of ancestral 
holdings together with the liberation of enslaved debtors 


250 THE CALL.TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in the year of jubilee is given a wider, an eternal meaning 
by our Lord, when He seizes upon this, the gladdest festi- 
val of Hebrew life, regarding it as a type of the Messianic 
age, in which the spiritual discords of life are to be re- 
solved into the divine harmony of a life fashioned after 
the pattern of Jesus Christ. But what is freedom from 
political bondage and the restoration of economic rights in 
the land of Palestine, when compared with “ the acceptable 
year of the Lord,” bringing spiritual release and redemp- 
tion to a world of afflicted and bruised sinners, and pour- 
ing upon their wounds the oil of gospel gladness? What 
a wonderful sermon that must have been which Jesus 
preached in His home town that day, setting forth the 
nature of the gospel as interpreted by the peerless Prophet. 
The spiritual program which He presented to His towns- 
people on this occasion was of infinitely greater worth than 
the economic program of jubilee restoration. At last the 
hour of spiritual emancipation has struck, and a divine 
day of opportunity has dawned. The ills of life find their 
ultimate cure in the faithful acceptance of the gospel 
which Jesus preached. It is needless to add that there is 
involved in this also a personal faith in the world’s su- 
preme Evangelist, Healer and Emancipator. 

From the very beginning of His public career, Jesus 
goes forth full of the Spirit and anointed for Messianic 
service, to unfold His clearly-conceived, definitely ac- 
cepted mission. And what a remarkable sense of mission 
was His! In the prophecy He read in the synagogue, 
Jesus declares, “He hath sent Me.” Similar expressions, 
pointing to the consciousness of His divine mission, occur 
time and time again in the gospel narratives. We quote at 
random a limited number of such passages belonging to 
different periods of Christ’s ministry. Jesus emphatically 
declares, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other 
cities also, for therefore am I sent. . . . Last of all He 


THE CALL OF JESUS 251 


sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My 
Son. ... God sent not His Son into the world to con- 
demn the world but that the world through Him might be 
saved. . . . I came down from heaven not to do Mine own 
will, but the will of Him that sent Me. ...I have a 
greater witness than that of John, for the works which the 
Father hath given Me to finish, the same works which I 
do, bear witness of Me. ... Jesus said unto them, If 
God were your Father, ye would love Me, for I proceeded 
forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but 


He sent Me. . . . Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath 
consecrated and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, 
because I said, I am the Son of God? ... O righteous 


Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known 
Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. . 
They have believed that Thou didst send Me. . . . This is 
life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” 

How are we to account for this sense of mission in the 
life of Jesus? Why was He called of God and commis- 
sioned by Him for Messianic service? The answer is not 
far to seek, and it can be stated in very simple language. 
John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He 
gave.” It was need in the world plus love in God that 
constituted the call of Jesus and gave to Him that won- 
derfully compelling conviction of vocation. The Son of 
man came to seek and to save the lost. The world with- 
out Christ is lost. The Master’s business, therefore, is 
urgent. He must make haste in view of the greatness and 
immensity of the task committed to Him. The harvest 
truly is plenteous but the labourers are few. What are a 
few workers in face of a universal need! The field is the 
world. What infinite possibilities! If Jesus came into the 
world to meet a great need, do we need more than sufficed 
for Him? As has been pointed out, the historic call of 


252 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Jesus coincides with His baptism. Of all those who have 
been baptized and confirmed only a comparatively small 
number have heard the commissioning voice of a loving 
God to sacrificial ministerial service. In the case of many, 
the baptismal vow of consecration to God and His Church, 
reaffirmed at confirmation and at the Sacrament of the 
Altar, has led to nothing more, so far as one can see, than 
to a compromise with the spirit of this world. Seemingly 
the love of God in Christ has appealed to them in vain. A 
heart actuated by love to God and man will hear the call 
of a needy world, where the loveless and callous heart will 
turn but a deaf ear to the appeals of a loving God, knowing 
no duty beyond that of mere self-interest. 

Every youth will do well to look in his own heart and 
make sure, whether or not the call of God is failing of 
response for lack of love to a perishing world. It may 
have been there but perhaps it was driven out by selfish 
desires, and the love of Mammon has taken its place. In 
such a case it will never do, in the presence of the all- 
seeing eye of the great Searcher of hearts and motives, to 
hide, under one pretext or another, from the solemn per- 
sonal consideration of our duty to preach the gospel to the 
lost. ‘The sooner we rid ourselves of all these shuffling 
evasions by which the devil is attempting to persuade us to 
escape from our duty, the better. Have some of us been 
trying to hide behind the suggestion of doubt as to our per- 
sonal responsibility in the matter of preaching the gospel? 
How easy it is to succumb to the suggestion of doubt! 
“If” is a devil-word, which needs to be guarded against. 
What a formidable weapon it is in the hands of the 
tempter. Judging from its use in the temptations of Jesus 
it must have been regarded as a rather formidable weapon. 
You will recall that the tempter came to Jesus and said, 
‘Tf Thou art the Son of God.” 

So he tempts promising young men now with his evil 


THE CALL OF JESUS 253 


whispers, breathing doubts of all sorts into their hearts and 
minds regarding the ministry to which God has called 
them. One of the most perplexing questions that comes to 
them is, Are you really sure that God has called you, and 
how do you know? as if the inner urge to serve God and 
our fellowmen in this special way had nothing to do with 
it. However, we would not imply that this is not a per- 
plexing question to some men, for we know only too well 
that not all men are called to the work of the. ministry. 
We are also sure of the fact that not all men who enter 
the ministry are really called of God. The abortive at- 
tempts of some to enter the ministry, possessing no quali- 
fications whatsoever for this highest of all callings, are 
most pathetic. There is scarcely anything more pathetic 
than for a man to miss his calling in life. And yet, while 
we grant all this it is just as certain that not all men whom 
God has selected for ministerial service, actually find their 
way into the ministry. Positively it is not true that if God 
wanted more men in the ministry He would call them. 
Such a view throws the responsibility for the inadequacy 
and dearth of ministerial candidates and the consequent 
loss of large portions of the spiritual harvest entirely upon 
the Lord of the harvest. God’s plan of salvation, as we 
know, is world-embracing, and the fact is that God does 
call a sufficient number of men for the work of the min- 
istry but many of those who are called become a prey to 
the allurements of a tempting world. The temptation to 
turn aside from the ministry may assume various forms. 
The insinuation of doubt concerning the ministerial voca- 
tion may be succeeded by the desire to “ convert the stones 
into bread ” by calling into play every ounce of faculty of 
body, mind and soul for the satisfaction of earthly needs. 
By nature we make our stones bread; we are prone:to use 
every God-given power for our own ends. Jesus might 
have turned aside from the rugged path of duty and en- 


254 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


tered one of the more alluring walks of ambition by the 
exercise of His God-given powers, but He chose the path 
of loving service and of self-sacrifice. He showed to the 
world that there is something higher and better than the 
instinct of self-preservation and self-love. 

Every young man looking forward to his lifework 
should bring himself, in some degree at least, to the meas- 
ure of Christ’s ideal of service. If you want to be a fol- 
lower of Jesus Christ, instead of following Mammon all 
your days merely for the sake of bread, you must make 
His Messianic ideal of sacrificial service to humanity your 
own and apply it in your life and conduct among men. 
The tempter comes to you and says, “ You have certain 
gifts, capabilities and talents, by which you can secure 
comfort and position in the world; use these for your own 
advancement and lay up treasures on earth against a 
rainy day.” Or he may point you to some of your for- 
mer classmates in high school or college, who have gone 
into business or into one of the more lucrative professions 
and have prospered and grown rich. They will never be 
pinched by poverty or burdened with debts like the 
prophet who has never learned the art of converting stones 
into bread. Remember that to preach repentance to the 
people and to rebuke the ruling classes for their sins is 
not a very lucrative undertaking. Think of the fate of 
John the Baptist and of Jesus. That ought to be enough 
to make you hesitate and turn back from the path of Chris- 
tian service to the world as you find it. Why should you 
renounce home and comfort and the opportunity to rise in 
the world to undertake the hopeless task of casting out the 
devil there is in every man? Why sacrifice the ordinary 
ambitions and enjoyments of life for the sake of an ideal? 
Seek the prizes of earth and you will obtain them, 

Ah, yes; but the tempter has forgotten to state that by 
seeking the bread of earth a man may sometimes lose his 


THE CALL OF JESUS 255 


soul. For no man has a right to choose his own course of 
life without reference to the will of God, whatever that 
may imply in his particular case. He would be a fool who 
feared to bid every capable and consecrated Christian 
young man whose heart has been touched by men’s deepest 
needs, choose as Christ chose. The prospect of such a 
lifework may make you painfully conscious of the “ bread- 
less desert ” in which the prophet frequently finds himself. 
But remember that the doing of God’s will and obedience 
to. His Word will bring to you another kind of bread, the 
sweetness of which must ever escape the lips of the 
tempter and of his duped cohorts. ‘The devil never makes 
good his promises. “ He is a liar from the beginning.” 
It never pays to disobey God’s will. By choosing, out of 
purely selfish motives, one of life’s many bread-careers, a 
poteritial prophet may fill his body with bread and yet re- 
main the hungriest man in the world. Why be satisfied 
with the husks of earth, when the heavenly manna of a 
life lived in accordance with God’s will may be yours? 
Ministering angels do come to many a breadless and hun- 
gry prophet. Seasons of refreshment are not lacking in 
the life of every prophetic preacher. To a genuine prophet, 
the Word of God is far more precious than any of the 
“sweetmeats ” of earth. Obedience to that Word is bet- 
ter than bodily gratification. How much better it is for a 
man who is conscious of power in a given direction not to 
restrict the use of that power to selfish ends but to use it 
as a good steward for the welfare of others. 

To be sure, it requires the grace of God and some 
strength of character to make the right choice. To Jesus 
personal gain and worldly advancement meant nothing; 
the doing of God’s will was infinitely better than a lifelong 
forage for bodily food. Jesus indignantly refused to en- 
tertain a suggestion so utterly opposed to His spirit of 
consecration, so subversive of all His high purposes and 


256 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


lofty hopes. He overcomes the first and succeeding temp- 
tations by quoting from Deuteronomy. This shows how 
well He had learned the lessons of His childhood and 
points to the lasting value of His early religious training. 
The studies of childhood and youth had contributed their 
share to the knowledge which had been acquired through 
well-nigh thirty years. Jesus knew more than the letter of 
the law; He learned to breathe the spirit of the writings 
that speak of God. Who would have thought that early 
home training and attendance upon synagogue and temple 
would have such a large part in the preparation of Jesus 
for Messianic service? Nothing is ever wasted in the life 
of a truly consecrated man who is willing to place all his 
gifts on the altar of service. Thus the things which in the 
period of preparation may seem insignificant and trivial 
will be transfigured and magnified by the transforming 
influence of a fuller consecration. 

The sin of presumption in religion, alluded to in the 
second temptation, reminds us of the young man who is 
able to decide to go to college or enter some business pur- 
suit but who, for lack of sufficient consecration, is unable 
to heed the divine summons to preach the gospel to a lost 
world. He is the type of man who is always saying, “If 
God really wants me in the ministry, He will see to it that 
I get there.” Strange, is it not, that the same young man 
will not ask for a miracle to force him into the business of 
making money, as if it were a matter of indifference to a 
Christian whether or not God wants him in business. His 
precipitate haste to enter business leaves no time for a 
miracle which might point to the ministry as a possible 
lifework. When it comes to a business career he is old 
enough, he thinks, to make his own choice, but when it is 
a question of his entering the ministry or not he expects 
God to move heaven and earth and work a miracle in the 
physical universe merely for the sake of demonstrating to 


THE CALL OF JESUS 257 


him in some visible way that God wants him in the min- 
istry. Down in his heart he knows that the miracle for 
which he asks will not be forthcoming. Moreover, the mir- 
acle, if granted, would do no good. This faithless craving 
for a miracle is nothing but a subterfuge prompted by 
moral cowardice. Let a man be honest with God and with 
himself and the way of duty will become increasingly clear. 
It will not be long before he becomes fully conscious of 
his profound spiritual debt, of the world’s need, of the 
unique power of the Gospel, of his duty of service and of 
his ministerial commission to apply the saving power of a 
liberating gospel to the sin-fettered slaves of earth. 

For God does call men; He calls them in various ways, 
but more especially through His Word, whether it comes 
to them through the ordinary reading of the Bible or in the 
form of a sermon. To expect a special revelation before 
one can be reasonably sure of the divine call is to tempt 
God. The only sign that will be given to such a faithless 
generation of men is “the sign of the times,” reinforced 
by God’s dealings with men in the past. A truly conse- 
crated Christian of the right sort and with proper qualifi- 
cations for ministerial service will ask for no other miracle. 
It is sufficient to know that God has need of his services in 
the most glorious enterprise in all the world and that the 
divine plan of salvation is ample for every human need. 
Can any man, in the face of all that God has already done 
and is still doing, particularly in the realm of grace, have 
the audacity to ask for a miracle in order that he may be 
forced into the ministry against his will? God’s omnipo- 
tence does violence to no man. If some in times past have 
been thrust into the ministry, this was due to the compul- 
sion of an inescapable sense of duty and to the compelling 
power of an inner necessity rather than the application of 
physical force. God will not stoop to the level of a 
wonder-worker in the physical realm merely for the sake 


258 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


of overcoming a man’s unwillingness to serve Him in the 
prophetic office. But the miracle to which God will con- 
sent is to bring divine pressure to bear upon a man’s moral 
and religious sensibilities, so that he will eventually yield 
himself to the guiding and directing influence of His 
wooing Spirit. 

The blind forces of nature, by a show of physical power, 
can destroy a man who violates nature’s laws, but in and 
of themselves they can effect no spiritual transformation 
in the soul of man. God only, by the winsomeness of 
moral suasion and spiritual processes, can effect such a 
change. This is the miracle for which every potential but 
unwilling prophet should be asking. That kind of a mir- 
acle will surely come to pass, provided a man is open to 
conviction. This, of course, presupposes a receptive heart 
and a willingness to serve others. Such miracles are 
wrought on the lofty heights of Christian idealism and not 
in the stifling valley of human selfishness. To a man who 
can turn away from self and, from the vantage ground of 
an altruistic love, begins to see the needs of others, the 
tempter comes and says, “Come down from those lofty 
heights, otherwise you will dash your feet against a stone. 
The idealist is a dreamer who will sooner or later come to 
grief, because he is unable to come down to cold reality. 
The prophet’s path is hard and uphill; he cannot hope to 
change the course of things for men love to have it so. 
He does not seem to realize that the prophet generally 
becomes a martyr to the cause, because he is too far in 
advance of his time for the people to understatid him. 
Will they not look upon him as a demented and dangerous 
person? Do you know what the people have done to the 
greatest of the prophets? The verdict of one of the wisest 
Jewish statesmen in the time of Jesus was that ‘ it is bet- 
ter that one die for the people than that the whole nation 
perish. And are you better than Jesus? What did an- 


THE CALL OF JESUS 259 


other politician say about the apostle’ to the Gentiles? 
Why, Paul, ‘thou art beside thyself.’ It 1s only neces- 
sary to recall that the religious authorities in Jerusalem 
imprisoned Peter and John for preaching the gospel and 
that the Roman authorities at Philippi did likewise with 
Paul and Silas rather than have the whole population in 
a state of turmoil. Think of the fate of Peter and Paul 
and of many others too numerous to mention. Think of 
all these things, and learn to come down from those pre- 
cipitous heights before it is too late or you will suffer the 
consequences. And besides, do you hope to convert the 
world by the slow processes of character-transformation ? 
Think of the untold millions of individuals that have to be 
evangelized before any noticeable impression can be made 
upon this unwieldy and slow-moving mass of humanity. 
It simply cannot be done. Why fight a losing battle? 
Why not think of yourself? Therefore, let me caution 
you to come down from the pinnacle of your religious 
idealism. You have got to take the world as you find it; 
you cannot hope to change it. Do what the vast majority 
of people are doing: Cast yourself down, like Israel of old, 
before the golden calf. The god of gold claims many 
devotees from every land. Follow their example and the 
world will do you honour.” 

When the tempter has succeeded in dashing our re- 
ligious idealism to the ground and we grope and grovel 
around in the valley of earthly desires, we would even pre- 
sume on the help of divine grace to carry our self-centred, 
self-advertising schemes through. How pious the wish in 
such cases that if God prosper our efforts we will make a 
liberal contribution to the church or to foreign missions, 
as if the giving of things could ever compensate for the 
giving of ourselves in sacrificial service! That is only an- 
other way of making trial of God for purely selfish ends. 
Indeed, it dishonours God because it holds out the pros- 


260 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


pect of a bribe in return for material prosperity. The 
Creator of heaven and earth and the Owner of all things 
visible and invisible cannot be bargained with in this way. 
“Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.” How 
far removed is this sordid spirit from Christ’s ideal of 
sacrificial service. He gave Himself without reserve, not 
asking for any reward save that of a good conscience. To 
have yielded to the superficialities of the popular demand 
would have left untouched the larger possibilities of re- 
ligion. He will be loyal to God’s plan of salvation; there 
will be no scratching of the surface of things. While it is 
true that many men go into social service work with the 
very best of motives and accomplish great good, it is 
equally true that some go into social service work who 
ought to enter the Christian ministry. To go into social 
service work as a substitute for ministerial service is to 
scratch the surface of religion. Dig deeper, my friend, for 
the golden ore of a still larger usefulness lies beneath the 
surface. 

The third temptation suggests how a glorious supremacy 
might be won over the kingdoms of the world by an act of 
homage to the exponent of evil. The fleeting panorama is 
one of surpassing beauty. What an enchanting scene! 
How fascinating and enticing! Why not accept the king- 
doms which have been offered and snatch at the bait held 
out by the tempter? Because only a small part of the 
picture has been shown. Behind all this superficial display 
of glittering tinsel, there is concealed the dark background 
of sin and the slimy ways by which kingdoms often have 
been won. Not infrequently purple robes and earthly 
crowns are lined with the thorns of uneasiness and fear, of 
cares and anxieties of all sorts, because they have been 
gained by sordid diplomatic schemes, by wicked plots, 
cruel massacres and bloody battles. There is some reason 
for the adage, “ Uneasy rests the head that wears a 


THE CALL OF JESUS 261 


crown.” Worldly kingdoms may be had by the adoption 
of worldly methods. In the case of Jesus to yield to the 
lure and love of earthly power would have been equivalent 
to a tacit acknowledgment that the principle of evil is more 
potent than that of good, and that the kingdom of God 
could not hope to succeed on a large scale without some 
concession to the rule of evil ina sinful world. In such a 
world, only a visionary could hope to overcome evil with 
spiritual forces; evil must be met with evil, force with 
force. This has been the false political philosophy of the 
Pharaohs, Sennacheribs and Herods, of the Alexanders, 
Czsars and Napoleons of history. 

And we are suffering still from the same destructive 
philosophy. How easily men are persuaded to bow to this 
Satanic suggestion. Far less than the offer of world- 
dominion will suffice to lead them astray from the divine 
purpose. Men break with God and hush into silence His 
commissioning voice and the promptings of the heart to 
enter the ministry for a momentary pleasure, a handful of 
glittering dust or the prospect of a more lucrative calling 
than that of the ministry. A mere promise, though it may 
never be fulfilled, is often sufficient. The tempter’s prom- 
ises are deceitful; he offers kingdoms which it is not in his 
power to give, for “the earth is the Lord’s.” He is still 
lavish in his offers and liberal in making promises which, 
by reason of his duplicity and double-dealing, generally re- 
main unfulfilled. But for whatever he offers he must have 
a full equivalent. So, for example, kingdoms are offered 
in return for worship on the assumption that whoever re- 
ceives the worship actually holds the kingdoms. This 
pretence of benevolence on the part of the tempter is 
shown at last to be utter selfishness, for worship involves 
service. “ All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt 
fall down and worship me.” ‘That worship and service 
belong together is evident from Christ’s reply, ‘“ Thou 


262 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou 
serve.” Religion means worship and service, sacrifice and 
devotion to the object of our worship. To Jesus, worship 
without the whole-hearted consecration of every God-given 
power to highest and noblest ends is unthinkable. There 
must be, along with our worship, a willingness to serve 
God and our fellowmen. To worship God with reserva- 
tions is a form of devil-worship. We cannot serve God 
and Mammon at one and the same time. God demands not 
only our worship but also our exclusive service. Religion 
is not a pious folding of indolent hands in the sanctuary ; 
the half-hearted and insincere prayers of loveless lips for 
more labourers for the Master’s vineyard are no substitute 
for loving personal service. Where there is no disposition 
to hear the Master’s call for ministerial candidates, the 
prayer that others might go to the home or foreign field is 
a meaningless and deceitful contrivance by which the 
Mammon-worshipper hopes to evade his personal respon- 
sibility in the evangelization of the world. The selfish 
man never takes the religious idealism of Christ’s gospel 
too seriously. The tempter usually finds him an easy vic- 
tim, because the man with a divided allegiance always has 
his price. Not so the man in whose heart the Father’s will 
is enthroned and who is striving to make Christ’s Messi- 
anic ideal of loving service to God and humanity his ideal 
of life. 

Jesus had but one great Master passion, one great aim 
and purpose, and that was to preach the gospel of the 
kingdom. Following John the Baptist, He reaffirmed the 
nearness of the kingdom, saying, “ The time is fulfilled 
and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe 
in the gospel.” The acceptable jubilee year of divine 
grace was announced by Christ many centuries ago. The 
time has been fulfilled for nineteen hundred years, and the 
kingdom of God is still in the process of coming, here in 


THE CALL OF JESUS 263 


the heart of this and of that individual, of this group of 
Christians here and there, wherever Christ’s conditions of 
entrance into the kingdom have been met. His vision of a 
universal and world-embracing kingdom is only partially 
realized, because men the world over have had their eyes 
too much upon the kingdoms of this world, and because 
men’s quest for the kingdom of God has been relegated to 
second place. If men lived for others half as much as they 
do for themselves, and if they exhibited half as much zeal 
for the kingdom of God as they do for the things of the 
world, this sin-cursed earth of ours would soon become a 
veritable paradise, peopled with liberated captives and re- 
deemed souls enjoying the blessings of a perpetual jubilee, 
in which the discords of life have been resolved into the 
divine harmony of a Christ-like life. But the time of ful- 
filment, to which Jesus refers in His inaugural address, 
has been restricted to a comparatively small area of the 
earth’s surface. And why is this? Because the conditions 
of a universal fulflment have not been met. As the near 
approach of the kingdom demands spiritual preparedness, 
the emphasis must ever be upon the proper attitude of the 
heart toward that kingdom. Jesus put the emphasis upon 
a change of heart and mind. This is the crux of the whole 
situation. The kingdom of God does not come more 
rapidly because men’s hearts and minds are too full of the 
things of earth. Human selfishness and worldly interests 
are still enthroned in countless hearts. 

My young friend, perhaps you too need a change of 
heart and mind with respect to the Christian ministry, for 
it may be that with all your God-given talents, you may yet 
become a factor in world-wide evangelization. If it is true 
that every Christian in the early Church was a missionary 
in the sense of being a witness for Christ, whether in his 
official calling as a preacher or as a consecrated layman, 
then what of your witness-bearing? Should there be rea- 


264 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


son for thinking that God has called you to full-time 
Christian service, then face the issue fairly and squarely 
like a man. In that event do not attempt to substitute 
part-time service as a consecrated layman or as a social 
worker. Have nothing to do with pious pretexts, for the 
way to perdition is paved with good intentions. The self- 
ish life is doomed and only the Christ-like life endures. 
Whatever you do, do not sell out to the tempter, for 
worldly emoluments and material gain are a poor recom- 
pense for the loss of your soul. Therefore, change your 
view of life, and make it conform to the Master’s ideal of 
self-forgetful service and though evil may triumph for a 
time, Christ will be exalted and His Kingdom will come 
through you and all His faithful disciples. 

From the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus made 
the suffering Servant of Isaiah fifty-three His Messianic 
ideal; and through Him self-sacrificing service to human- 
ity has become, as previously remarked, the central teach- 
ing of Christianity. This is God’s plan of salvation. 
Jesus accepts the plan and rigidly adheres to it from be- 
ginning to end. Short-cuts to the goal that was set before 
Him are consistently repudiated. Nothing can change His 
course; the Father’s will is supreme. How we need to 
learn this lesson today! There is no higher ideal than that 
of self-sacrificing service to humanity. Let us embrace it 
and consistently pursue it. 


XII 
THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 


Joun 1:35-51; Mart. 4:18-22; Luxe 5:1-11, 27-32; 
Mark 3: 13-19; 9: 36-10, 39; Luxe 10: 1-24 


note that the man who prepared the way of the 

Lord’s Anointed also furnished the first disciples for 
the Messianic kingdom. ‘The latter half of the opening 
chapter of the Fourth Gospel informs us that they had 
been prepared in the school of the herald, who seemed to 
take special delight in introducing to Jesus his choicest 
disciples. How refreshing, in this selfish world, to see a 
man who is content to hand over some of his maturest dis- 
ciples to One greater than himself. John’s emphatic testi- 
mony to Jesus as the sin-bearing Lamb of God accounts 
for the eagerness of the two disciples mentioned in John 
1:35 ff. to meet Him who was to sweep away the sin- 
caused troubles of the world. Looking intently upon 
Jesus as He passed the place where He had been baptized 
not long before, the Baptist suddenly exclaimed, “ Behold 
the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak 
and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and beheld 
them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? and 
they said unto Him, Rabbi, where abidest Thou? And He 
saith unto them, Come and ye shall see.” Prompted by an 
overmastering desire to become better acquainted with the 
passing Figure, in whom they felt so keenly interested, 
they followed Jesus, but not wishing to stop the great 
Teacher on the road, they inquire after His lodging-place, 
so that they might interview Him at a more opportune 


265 


ie discussing the call of the Twelve it is interesting to 


266 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


time. But Jesus, in His characteristic way, bids them 
come at once, for now is the day of salvation. He knows 
that they have more to ask than can be answered on the 
spot, and so He asks them to come with Him and spend 
with Him the remainder of the day. 

This first interview with Jesus made such a profound 
impression upon one of the disciples that followed Jesus 
that He could not refrain, in describing the incident years 
later, from noting the exact hour when the interview be- 
gan. The disciple in question remembers the very hour of 
this crisis in his life, which was also of moment in the 
history of Christianity and of the world. He says, “ it 
was about the tenth hour” that day, or about four o’clock 
in the afternoon, when they entered His lodging-place and 
sat down to listen to His words. That was a memorable 
hour, for it marked the beginning of an acquaintance 
which ultimately issued into uninterrupted discipleship. 
On that never-to-be-forgotten day they saw more than a 
poor hut in which the great Teacher lodged. They began 
to see something of the glory of Jesus as the incarnate 
Word, referred to in John 1:14. While we look in vain 
for any express mention of the topic of conversation, the 
outcome of the conversation points to the Messiahship of 
Jesus as the theme which engaged their thoughts that 
evening ; at any rate, they saw in Jesus the promised Mes- 
siah. One of the two disciples of John who conversed 
with Jesus “was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He 
first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, 
We have found the Messiah.” Who the other disciple was 
is not stated. —The unnamed person is none other than the 
author of the narrative itself, whose characteristic reserve 
about himself will not permit him to introduce his name 
into the sacred record. 

Continuing the narrative we are told that when the first 
pair of brothers arrived, Jesus looked at Peter and said, 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 267 


“Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called 
Cephas.” Andrew in bringing Simon would naturally 
make mention of the name and parentage of his brother. 
But the penetrating glance of Jesus pierced the very heart 
of the latter and discerned in this prospective disciple 
latent possibilities of rock-like strength and firmness, 
Cephas, “a rock,” is the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek 
Petros. The new name, which is given in this case, points 
to the new relation into which Simon is about to enter. 
“A rock” is the emblem of firmness and stability among 
the Greeks as early as the days of Homer. (Od. XVII, 
463.) This new name, of course, is prophetic of what 
Simon is yet to be. For the present he is anything but a 
rock; he is more like a reed shaken by the vacillating and 
changing winds of impulse, or like a boat tossed to and fro 
on the surging billows of impetuosity. At least this is the 
picture we get from the gospel narratives. And yet for all 
that it is upon the rock-like certitude of faith in Jesus 
Christ as confessed by Peter that the disciples of all ages 
may build until the end of time. Though it looked for a 
time as if the forces of a hostile world might crush this 
man of rock, he will not give up the battle but struggle on, 
rising to his feet after every blow, for has he not been 
assured by the Master that He has prayed for him that his 
faith might not fail him? 

The day following this interview Jesus decided to return 
to Galilee. As the four disciples, above mentioned, were 
also Galilzans, they probably decided to go with Him. 
Whether or not they had already left the fords of Jordan, 
where they had been baptized by John, when Jesus met 
Philip, cannot be determined. At any rate Jesus, on meet- 
ing Philip, who was a fellow-townsman of Andrew and 
Peter, said to him, ‘‘ Follow Me.” That this was no mere 
invitation to join Him on the journey is clear from New 
Testament usage. In the Gospels these words are gener- 


268 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ally equivalent to a call to become a disciple, and they are 
always addressed, with but two exceptions, to those who 
afterwards became apostles. Philip’s readiness to follow 
Jesus, which is tacitly assumed in the narrative, may be 
due in part to his acquaintance with Andrew and Peter, 
whose enthusiasm for their new Master was so great that 
they could not help speaking of Him to their friends and 
acquaintances, though certainly the heart-piercing look of 
Jesus must be regarded as the chief cause which led Philip 
to come to a decision. Thus the foundation is laid for his 
becoming one of the disciples who later became the perma- 
nent followers of Jesus. Now that Philip had seen Jesus 
Himself he too must share the joyful news with others. 
The same feeling that prompted Andrew to seek his 
brother Simon, now prompts Philip to tell the good news 
to one of his friends, for to see Jesus is to become a mis- 
sionary. It appears that he suddenly thought of an old 
acquaintance of his, named Nathanael, also called Bar- 
tholomew, that is, the son of Tolmai, who was in the 
neighbourhood, it seems, and so, leaving Jesus for awhile, 
he went to his friend and said, ““ We have found Him of 
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus 
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto 
him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip 
saith unto him, Come and see.” 

Philip, it will be noted, was a good student of the Old 
Testament ; he was familiar with the prophetic allusions to 
the Messiah. He informs his friend that he and the other 
disciples are convinced that the promised Messiah of 
Hebrew prophecy has at last been found in the person of 
Jesus of Nazareth, generally spoken of as the son of 
Joseph, because He had been reared in his home. Philip 
may have mentioned the name of the Nazarene builder and 
contractor, assuming that Nathanael, who hailed from the 
nearby town of Cana, may have heard of this name before. 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 269 


If that was his motive Philip, who lived at a greater dis- 
tance from Nazareth, certainly had no idea that the mere 
mention of Nazareth would arouse the antagonism of the 
prejudiced villager from Cana of Galilee. When told that 
the Messiah had been found in the Nazarene, he said, 
“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Did he 
ask this question because Nazareth did not enjoy a very 
good reputation, or did it grow out of jealousy, such as is 
sometimes found among the inhabitants of two rival towns 
in close proximity to each other? Was he voicing the 
opinion of the people of Judzea who despised the Galilzans 
in general, or was he prejudiced against the people of a 
nearby village and saying, Surely a distinguished person- 
age like the Messiah can never come from an insignificant 
place like Nazareth! Philip, on the basis of his recent ex- 
perience, does not stop to argue the point. He knows of a 
far better solution of the difficulty, which is summed up in 
his laconic reply, “‘ Come and see.” 

Philip’s answer, made familiar to him perhaps through 
the lips of Andrew and John, to whom the same admoni- 
tion had been addressed by Jesus Himself, is the best 
answer to all Christian inquiry. To arrive at Christ by a 
process of reasoning may be well enough as far as it goes, 
but an appeal to personal experience is in many cases far 
more convincing. Nathanael is to hold his doubts in abey- 
ance until he can convince himself by a personal interview 
with Jesus. His prejudice, like most prejudices, had a 
poor foundation, for it implies an exaggerated estimate of 
the power of social influence. If a lily can grow on a 
dunghill, so can the Messiah come out of Nazareth, no 
matter what may be the reputation of the Nazarenes. He 
is soon to learn that the best cure for ill-founded prejudice 
is to come and see Jesus. But be it said to Nathanael’s 
lasting credit that in spite of his doubts and prejudices, he 
is willing to be instructed and have them removed; he is 


270 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


open to conviction and in this way shows his guilelessness 
and sincerity of heart. He takes his friend’s advice and 
goes with him. Jesus, seeing him approach, turns to those 
about Him and says of him, ‘‘ Behold an Israelite indeed, 
in whom is no guile!” But as Nathanael asks Him, how 
it came that He knew him, Jesus replies, ‘‘ Before Philip 
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” 
In contrast with the many Israelites, who claimed descent 
from Israel, Nathanael is in reality what the name Israel 
signifies and what one should expect from a real Israelite. 
Spiritually he is a true descendant of his illustrious an- 
cestor; he is a genuine Israelite and not merely one in 
name. He is a true “prince of God” who, prior to 
Philip’s visit, had been engaged in spiritual exercises 
under cover of a fig tree, wrestling with God in prayer 
and pouring out to his Maker the deepest longings of 
his soul, 

To those standing about Jesus as Nathanael arrives on 
the scene, the word “guile,” in the connection in which 
Jesus uses it, would suggest the subtilty and deceit of 
Jacob before he became Israel (Gen. 25: 30-33; 27: 5-36; 
30: 37-43; 32: 27-29). That he is without guile implies 
that here is a son, not of Jacob, but of Israel. The shady 
fig tree with its dense leafy foliage was his Peniel where 
he found God in agonizing prayer. Jacob, the supplanter 
and trickster, is now gone and the man of princely char- 
acter remains. What he was praying and thinking about 
is not stated. Was he meditating upon the Messianic hope 
of the nation and praying that God would soon lead him to 
the Messiah, whose coming the Baptist had already an- 
nounced? Nathanael, at any rate, sees in this reference to 
his devotional life that Jesus had read the very secret of 
his heart and knew what his thoughts had been under the 
fig tree. He accepts Jesus’ statement as an evidence of 
supernatural knowledge and forthwith all his doubts and 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 271 


prejudices disappear. Perceiving that the depths of his 
soul lay open before the spiritual eye of Jesus, he who had 
come to the Searcher of hearts with mockery upon his lips, 
confesses Him to be “ the Son of God” and “ the King of 
Israel.” While as yet Nathanael’s conception of Israel’s 
Messianic King still breathes the political atmosphere of 
the nation’s theocratic hopes, Jesus receives the earnest 
and sincere confession with joyous surprise at the ready 
belief of the guileless Israelite of Cana, informing him at 
the same time that henceforth he and the other disciples 
would witness far greater demonstrations of power from 
on high. “ Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I 
said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest 
thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And He 
saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Henceforth 
ye shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending upon the Son of man.” 

Evidently these words, although directed in the first in- 
stance to Nathanael, were addressed to a plurality of per- 
sons. Inferentially some, if not all, of Christ’s newly 
gained adherents were also present on this occasion. They 
are given to understand that the public ministry of the 
Messiah is a binding link between heaven and earth, and 
that out of the opened heavens the ascending and descend- 
ing angels of God will bring to Him whatever powers may 
be necessary for the completion of His Messianic work. 
The “ opened heaven” and the ascending and descending 
angels are an accommodation to the theme of Nathanael’s 
meditation. It is quite unlikely that “the angels of God 
ascending and descending upon the Son of man” are to 
be taken in a literal sense. Scripture does speak of angels 
ministering to Jesus at critical moments in His earthly 
ministry, but nowhere, except at the Ascension, are the 
disciples said to have seen them. The “ from henceforth ” 
of verse 51 and the Ascension would make a rather long 


272 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


gap between the beginning of Christ’s public ministry and 
the literal fulfilment of these words. Even if some or all 
of the disciples had been witnesses to such appearances it 
is hardly likely that they literally saw “the angels of God 
ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” But we 
do not wish to press the point. All that we want to note 
in this connection is that the language of verse fifty-one 
was borrowed from Jacob’s dream at Bethel. When he 
fled from home and country, the forlorn traveller, laying 
his head upon a stone as a pillow for the night, saw heaven 
opened and “the angels of God ascending and descend- 
ing’ upon a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. ‘To 
the awaking patriarch the ladder and the ascending and 
descending angels were tokens of God’s uninterrupted 
protection. With these ministering spirits about him he 
can face the future and take courage. The permanent re- 
ligious significance of this passage is expressed with pro- 
found insight and truth in John 1:51, where the dream of 
Jacob finds its highest fulfilment in the unique Son of 
man. Henceforth the visionary ladder of the patriarch is 
swept away by the dawn of the Messianic era with its un- 
interrupted and perpetual intercourse between heaven and 
earth, God and the Messiah being in constant communion 
with each other. From now on access to heaver is far 
more direct than if Jacob’s ladder still spanned the very 
heavens and God’s ministering angels were walking up and 
down in a visible form. 

“The Son of man,” alluded to in our verse, calls for a 
word of explanation. In Ezekiel, “ Son of man” is a title 
given to the prophet by Jehovah to remind him of his 
mortal frame. In the Psalms this phrase has reference to 
the ideal man, or man as God intended.him to be. ‘‘ The 
Son of man” in John 1:51 corresponds with “ the Son of 
man ” in the night visions of Daniel 7: 13-14, where “ One 
like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 273 


came to the Ancient of days and there was given Him do- 
minion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations 
and languages should serve Him.” In the four Gospels it 
is a title of the Messiah. Here in our passage it points 
both to the humanity and Messiahship of Jesus, the unique 
Son of man, who forges an eternal link between heaven 
and earth, between God and man. 

From the more formal call of the four disciples, men- 
tioned in Matthew 4: 18-22 and Mark 1: 16-20, we learn 
that the newly gained converts, who had met Jesus in the 
manner described in the first chapter of the Fourth Gos- 
pel, returned to their homes in Galilee, resuming their 
usual occupations until such time as the Master should 
wish them to become His personal followers and constant 
companions. That time came, as we are told in Matthew 
4:12-13, after John’s imprisonment, which was the signal 
for the commencement of the first Galilean ministry with 
Capernaum by the seaside as the centre of future oper- 
ations and the ordinary place of abode. The voice in the 
wilderness is now hushed in the oppressive silence of a 
cell, but with the going down of a prophetic star of the 
first magnitude the “ Great Light ” of a new-born day had 
already reached the zenith of unsurpassed power and un- 
approachable splendour. As previously pointed out, Jesus 
began His ministry in Galilee with the proclamation of the 
kingdom of God, saying, “ The time is fulfilled and the 
kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe” the 
good tidings of the kingdom’s near approach (Mark 
1:14-15). In all likelihood a considerable interval elapsed 
between the disciples’ first acquaintance with Jesus in the 
vicinity of the Jordan and the present call to permanent 
discipleship, to which your attention is now invited. 

Somewhere in between the first interview of John 1 and 
the present call must be placed Jesus’ preliminary ministry 
in Judza, following which He returns to Galilee, while the 


274 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


sons of Jona and of Zebedee fall back again into the 
routine of secular life. Toward the close of the Baptist’s 
career and shortly before His first appearance in the syna- 
gogue at Capernaum, Jesus, walking along the shore of 
the Sea of Galilee, finds the two pairs of brothers occupied 
with their daily tasks. According to the parallel accounts 
of Matthew and Mark, Simon and Andrew were actually 
engaged in fishing when they received their call. The very 
act of casting a big net into the sea suggested to the mind 
of Jesus that other kind of fishing in which He was so 
intensely interested. He immediately calls to them with a 
loud voice, summoning them to share the blessed privilege 
of constant companionship with the supreme Fisher of 
men, in order that they might be able to spread the net of 
the gospel over a sea of imperishable souls, first over the 
sea of His own nation and then over a boundless, world- 
embracing sea of human hearts and lives. “And Jesus 
said unto them, Come ye after Me,” literally, “ Hither! 
after Me! and I will make you to become fishers of men.” 
The expression, “ Come ye after Me,” is a conventional 
way of saying, “ Be My disciples,’ and grew out of the 
custom of allowing precedence to the rabbi, while walking 
along the street. ‘Be My followers and I will make you 
to become fishers of men. I shall prepare you for work of 
a spiritual character and teach you to wield another kind 
of net than that which ye are casting into the lake, so that 
ye may be able to catch men for God.” 

What an apt figure of speech, taken from the domain of 
fishing, conveying the thought that if the fishermen of 
Bethsaida followed Jesus He would employ them to gather 
men in the net of the gospel and land them on the shores 
of the divine kingdom! This was no temporary invitation, 
as in John 1, to follow Jesus for awhile. The two men 
readily understood that there was implied in the summons, 
a definite call to become permanent disciples of Jesus. 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 275 


According to New Testament usage, “to follow Jesus ”’ is 
a figurative expression for discipleship involving personal 
attendance upon the great Teacher. From what they had 
already learned of Him, either from previous conversa- 
tions or during the Judzan ministry, these fishermen knew 
that they were to exchange a lower for a higher calling and 
what sort of work was in store for them. They were to 
accompany Jesus constantly and learn the art, so to speak, 
of catching the souls of men for the kingdom of God. 
Jesus, it will be remembered, spent a large part of His 
earthly ministry drawing choice souls into the net of divine 
truth that He might train and fit them to catch others, for 
the work of fishing in the sea of this world required many 
hands and He was not willing to be alone in His great 
work. At this stage of Christ’s ministry it was imperative \\ 
that the kingdom of the Messiah be founded on the rock of | 
deep and indestructible convictions in the minds of a small / 
inner circle of believers, not on the shifting sands of super- 
ficial impressions on the minds of the multitude. As yet 
that inner circle is too small. Shall the Master go to 
nearby Tiberias and augment His numbers by calling some 
of the polished courtiers belonging to the retinue of the 
Galilzan tetrarch? Or shall He repair to the Judzan 
capital and seek out the learned but hair-splitting and 
logic-chopping lawyers and senators or the strutting, 
sanctimonious-looking, petrified Pharisees in the Jewish 
Sanhedrin ? 

We are soon to learn that the “ whited sepulchres ” in 
Jerusalem and the fox-like courtiers from Herod’s palace 
are to have no place in that circle. Jesus is looking for’ 
men with a spiritual capacity, who are willing to grow 
mentally, morally and spiritually. He is looking for learn- 
ers with an open, receptive mind and heart, who kad to 
some extent at least been schooled and disciplined by their 
daily routine on the lake, which was well fitted to promote 


276 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


vigour of body and a certain independence of spirit, so 
necessary in the present’instance. It was among the hum- 
ble, truth-seeking, sincere-minded fishermen in open, 
sunny-faced Galilee that Jesus called the apostolic path- 
finders of His kingdom. He selected these men, not so 
much for what they were, but for what they were yet to 
be. For the moment they are only masses of latent capa- 
bilities, full of meaning to no eye but His. To be sure, 
the men He had chosen are far from ideal. They are far 
from finished products, as is quite apparent from the fact 
that Jesus did not call them with any idea of sending them 
‘out immediately as fishers of men, but merely promised to 
train them to become such, provided they would follow 
Him in all His wanderings and serve a sufficiently long 
apprenticeship as learners of the spiritual art of fishing for 
men’s souls. And yet they and others, who are about to 
be called, will be more docile and pliable in the hands of 
the great Master-Teacher than the prejudiced and stereo- 
typed minds of men of high degree. Such men are to be 
found among the fishermen of Bethsaida and their com- 
panions. Going on a little farther with the disciples thus 
gained, Jesus suddenly comes within sight of the sons of 
Zebedee, sitting in a boat repairing their nets. “And 
straightway He called them; and they left their father 
Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after 
Him.” They were directed to follow the Master that they 
might listen to His teaching and observe His mighty 
works, that they might be qualified for the work to which 
they were called. Henceforth they are to regard their old 
employment as emblematic of the higher calling to which 
they were now summoned. To them the call means a pro- 
motion from the secular to the spiritual. The spiritual 
import of the call will soon become quite clear to them by 
what they are about to witness on the lake. 

That they are to collect men into a Christian community 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 277 


by means of a spiritual net is abundantly illustrated by the’ 
miraculous draught of fishes, described in Luke 5: 1-11. 
Their faith in Jesus is wonderfully stimulated by it. This 
buoyancy of faith lent enthusiasm to the actual work of 
fishing for men’s souls which was to follow. But before \ 
we proceed it may be well to draw your attention to sev- 
eral points of difference in Luke’s account from that of 
Matthew and Mark. In the latter, Jesus finds the two 
pairs of brothers in their respective boats, while in the 
former the two boats are empty, the fishermen having gone 
out of them to wash their nets after a night of fruitless 
toil. According to Matthew and Mark, Simon and An- 
drew received their call, presumably early in the morning, 
as they were casting their net into the sea. James and 
John, on the other hand, had ceased fishing and were re- 
pairing their nets, when they were called. Matthew and 
Mark speak of two calls addressed successively and inde- 
pendently to the men in each boat, while in the former, 
that is, in Luke’s account, Jesus addresses Peter alone (v. 
10), although there can be no doubt from the result, al- 
luded to in the eleventh verse, that the words addressed to 
Simon included his partners also. Of the first four dis- 
ciples, mentioned 1n the parallel accounts of Matthew and 
Mark, Luke makes no reference whatsoever to Andrew, 
but it is more than likely that he and his brother were in 
the boat, in which Jesus sat when He was teaching the 
people. 

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus definitely calls the fisher- 
men to a higher sphere of activity, inviting them to follow 
Him in His wanderings, so that He might instruct, teach, 
prepare them for their future calling. Luke, on the other 
hand, says nothing of a call, presupposing a period of in- 
struction and preparation before the promised vocation 
can be undertaken in real earnest. In place of a promise 
looking to future participation in a spiritual sphere, we 


278 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


have the assurance of what looks like almost immediate 
co-operation in fishing for men’s souls. Speaking to Peter, 
Jesus says, “From now on thou shalt take men alive.” 
This presupposes that the period of preparation, referred 
to in both Matthew and Mark, had already begun, for the 
actual work of casting the net of the gospel over the sea 
of Jewish and Gentile life lies in immediate prospect. 
Other points of difference in the two accounts will be 
noted as we proceed with Luke’s narrative. The only 
reason for identifying this narrative with the well-known 
account of Matthew and Mark is the fact that other dis- 
ciples besides Peter “left all and followed Jesus.” But 
there is no reason why those of His disciples who lived in 
Capernaum, like Peter and Andrew, James and John, 
should not spend an occasional night on the lake for the 
sake of supporting, by their own efforts, both themselves 
and some of their relatives in the city, who may not have 
been as affluent as the father of the sons of Zebedee. 
Possibly the best proof that Luke 5:1-11 points to a 
later period in Christ’s ministry than the account in 
Matthew and Mark is the eager multitude that had as- 
sembled on the shore of the lake to hear Him preach. In 
Matthew and Mark, as previously noted, Jesus begins His 
Galilean ministry soon after the Baptist’s arrest. Prior 
to His first appearance as a Teacher in the synagogue at 
Capernaum we find Him walking along the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee, obviously all alone until He meets Simon 
and Andrew, James and John, calling each pair of brothers 
successively to permanent discipleship, while in Luke He 
is already surrounded by pressing throngs eagerly listening 
to His preaching before He becomes aware of the two 
empty boats and their former occupants a short distance 
away. From the preceding chapter of Luke’s account, not 
to speak of other passages in Matthew and Mark, it ap- 
pears that Jesus began His Messianic activity in Galilee by 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 279 


preaching in the synagogues, subsequently transferring, 
upon occasion, His preaching activity to the great out-of- 
doors, and there meet popularity as best He can. Jesus’ 
preaching in the synagogue at Capernaum and elsewhere, 
accompanied as it was in many cases by most remarkable 
demonstrations of His healing power, seems to lie in the 
past. The synagogues have now become too small for His 
audiences. A rising tide of popularity has swept through 
the countryside, bringing to this particular spot in large 
numbers the inhabitants of nearby towns, like Capernaum 
and Bethsaida. 

Surrounded on all sides by a dense throng and seeking 
a point of vantage, where His voice will command a wider 
range of listeners than the narrow coast line will permit, 
He enters one of two boats, drawn up on the shore, re- 
questing the owner thereof to “ put out a little from the 
land,” in order that He might preach to the multitude 
from the boat. Having thrown the net of the Gospel over 
His hearers on the shore, He turns, at the conclusion of 
the discourse, to Peter, the owner of the boat, saying, 
“ Put out into the deep,” and then, addressing a plurality 
of persons, He adds, “and let down your nets for a 
draught.” In addition to Simon there must have been one 
or more fishermen in the same vessel whose assistance 
would be required in letting down the nets, and hence the 
change from the singular to the plural imperative. But 
what could be the object of a command like this, which 
was certainly not in line with Peter’s experience as a fish- 
erman. Had he not worked in vain the previous night, 
when fishing could be carried on more successfully than in 
broad daylight? That the command went directly against 
his own experience is evident from the reply of the per- 
plexed and baffled fisherman. ‘“ Master,” he says with be- 
coming reverence, “ we toiled all night and took nothing.” 
Does the experienced fisherman feel hurt at the idea of 


280 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


being told to go and try again in the morning, especially 
after he and his partners had already toiled to no purpose 
at a far more suitable time for fishing? Still, though ap- 
pearances may be against it, he will do as requested out of 
respect for the Master’s work, thereby subordinating his 
will to the will of his Superior. Whatever his own 
thoughts and doubts may be as to the wisdom of the pres- 
ent undertaking, he will merge all these in the word of 
command which has been spoken; he cannot withhold 
obedience. This act of obedience was rewarded by an 
extraordinary take, “ And they inclosed a great multitude 
of fishes ; and their nets were breaking ; and they beckoned 
unto their partners in the other boat, that they should 
come and help them. And they came and filled both the 
boats, so that they began to sink” to the water’s edge. 
To the men in the two boats the astonishing draught 
that Jesus had brought about seemed nothing short of 
miraculous. They were utterly amazed at the result. 
Simon, especially, was completely overwhelmed by what 
had taken place. The fishermen were amazed because the 
intervening waters between the shore and the deepest part 
of the lake did not prevent Jesus from knowing where 
such a multitude of fishes could be found. Apparently 
they were little prepared for the wonderful draught, every 
indication pointing in that direction being absent, so it 
seems. Some of you may have heard of Tristram’s 
Natural History of the Bible, which speaks in a certain 
place (page 285) of great shoals of fish, an acre or more 
in extent, manifesting themselves at times in the Sea of 
Galilee. But this natural phenomenon will not explain the 
amazement of these experienced fishermen. While it 
would be entirely unnecessary to look upon the draught of 
fishes in the present instance as a miracle of creation, so 
far as Christ’s relation to it is concerned, we are fully 
justified in affirming that it was a miracle of knowledge 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 281 
in the sense that Jesus gave the direction at a time when 
the fish were within reach, thereby showing His command 
of all the circumstances. A mass of fish in one spot on 
the lake was not unprecedented, nor even strange perhaps. 
But if a shoal of fish had made its appearance on the sur- 
face of the lake within sight of those listening to Jesus 
preaching, the trained eye of the fishermen would have 
been among the first to detect it. But we read of nothing 
of the sort. However, we do read that they are com- 
manded to put out a considerable distance from the shore, 
where the sea had its greatest depth, and then to let down 
the nets for a draught. 

It is significant to note that Peter cannot comply before 
telling Jesus of their night of fruitless toil. Obviously the 
likelihood of success by making another venture at this 
time of day is not very great. Peter, at all events, is not 
very optimistic or enthusiastic about it. Possibly this ex- 
plains to some extent why Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees 
confessing his sin. ‘“ Depart from me,” he says, “for I 
am a sinful man, O Lord!” The marvellous success of 
what looked like a very doubtful experiment brought to 
him a vivid realization of the sinful spirit he had been in- 
dulging. His compliance with Christ’s command now 
stands revealed as the result of but partial obedience. Of 
course, he did as requested, but not before calling attention 
to his previous experience. After all, Jesus knew better 
than he did, experienced fisherman that he was. He now 
began to feel that if Jesus’ knowledge of the whereabouts 
of the multitude of fishes they had caught suffered no im- 
pairment by the intervening waters, He would certainly 
know of the sin he had been harbouring in his heart. He 
feels guilty, for he is sure that Jesus can see through him, 
to the very bottom of his heart and read his sinful 
thoughts. Presently there leaps from his lips a cry of 
remorse. He experiences a profound sense of his un- 


282. THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


worthiness to be the disciple and messenger of such a 
Lord. Hitherto he might speak of Jesus as the “ Master,” 
whose orders must be respected (v. 5). But now he is 
absolutely convinced that the Teacher he has been follow- 
ing is more than a mere rabbi, and he becomes conscience- 
stricken at the presence of a holy divine power. This new 
revelation of Christ’s power was the best revelation of his 
sinful self Peter had had up to this time, and he recog- 
nizes in Jesus the “ Lord,” whose holiness causes moral 
agony to the sinner. The consciousness of sin creates in 
Peter’s mind the feeling of an infinite distance existing 
between him and Christ. Powerfully impressed with the 
superhuman knowledge thus revealed, he regards Jesus for 
the moment as a supernatural being, whose presence fills 
him with terror. He perceives that he is in the presence of 
one in whom there is divine power. The revelation of the 
power and holiness of Jesus and the consciousness of his 
sinful condition causes him to fear the approach of One 
who must be more than a mere mortal and, prostrating 
himself at the feet of Jesus, he exclaims with character- 
istic candour, ‘“ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O 
Lord!” | 

Peter’s self-humiliation and repentance in the face of 
such a revelation is unfeigned, thus reminding us of a 
somewhat similar experience in connection with the call 
of Isaiah to prophetic service. But, as in the case of 
Isaiah, this consciousness of sin is a necessary preparation 
for his lifework. He now learns that the consciousness of 
his sinful condition is not to be a permanent disqualifica- 
tion for service in the Messianic kingdom; it can be re- 
moved. The fears of the terrified disciple are allayed by 
the assuring and comforting words, “ Fear not; from now 
on thou shalt take men alive.” Thus the real purpose of 
the enormous “take” is revealed. It is not a miracle 
which is to meet some urgent physical need, but to throw 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 283 


light upon Peter’s future activity in the kingdom and upon 
his relation to it. The large draught of fishes is a pro- 
phetic symbol of the marvellous success which in the near 
future shall attend his efforts in behalf of the kingdom of 
God. It was needed for the qualifying of the disciples, 
and especially Peter, who had been called to be fishers of 
men. To fish for men, as Peter now learns, requires per- 
sistent effort, but his patience must not abate, even when 
there is every semblance of “the night and nothing ”’; let 
him remember that he will achieve his greatest success in 
fullest reliance upon the efficacy of the Master’s command. 
He and his helpers are to become fishers of men, and catch 
men instead of fish, not by killing them, as fish expire 
when taken from their native element; they are to take 
them alive and keep them alive for life eternal. Their 
business, therefore, is to be with men—living, rational 
men with immortal souls. They are not to gain a living by 
the death of God’s creatures but to win men for God, nor 
for selfish ends but through love. Unlike fish that are 
caught in the net and killed in the catching, the precious 
lives of men are to be rescued, by means of the net of the 
gospel, from the stagnant waters of worldliness and trans- 
planted into the kingdom of God. To take men alive is to 
save them by taking them out of an element which stifles 
and destroys the inner life and draw them, by the con- 
straints of truth and love, within the Messiah’s kingdom. 
The object of this higher art is to bring to men the 
larger and the more abundant life. It is to lead men to 
Jesus who is the true life of men. Jesus who so delights 
in giving object-lessons to His disciples uses the present 
incident as an illustration of future success in a spiritual 
sphere. Having grasped the spiritual meaning of their 
recent experience, “they left all—their home, kindred, 
employment, nets, boats, means of subsistence, everything 
—and followed Jesus, consecrating, without reserve, their 


284 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 

entire personality, along with all the patience, perseverance 
and courage which they had acquired at their toil, to nobler 
service when, as fishers of men, they would cast the net of 
evangelical truth into the restless, dreary sea of life, haul- 
ing ashore, as it were, in the boat of the Christian com- 
munity of believers, a great multitude of believing souls. 
The commercial value of a multitude of fishes has no 
further charm, and having reached the shore they abandon 
their former employment and follow Jesus. The line of 
present duty is plain enough. Though the humble fisher- 
men of Galilee still have much to learn of what to them is 
a new and untried art, much may be expected of men who 
could leave all for Christ. We admire their devotion to 
Jesus which made them capable of any sacrifice. With all 
their imperfections these fishermen, trained as they were 
by the greatest Teacher the world has ever seen, became 
successful fishers of men, through whose influence count- 
less multitudes have been gathered into the net of the 
gospel. But we are anticipating. We now come to the 
call of Matthew, the tax-gatherer. 

The call of Matthew is described with minor variations 
in the parallel accounts of Matthew 9: 9-13, Mark 2: 13- 
17 and Luke 5: 27-32. In all three accounts it follows the 
healing of a paralytic in Capernaum, although it is not 
absolutely necessary to take the two as closely consecutive. 
Mark, it appears, separates this incident in point of time 
from the preceding narrative. At all events, sufficient time 
elapses for a great multitude to gather on the shore of the 
lake to hear Jesus preach. Mark 2:13 relates that Jesus 
went out again to the seaside, “and all the multitude re- 
sorted to Him and He taught them.” ‘The Greek words 
for “resorted” and “taught” are in the imperfect tense. 
This use of the imperfect implies that the people continued 
coming to Him in ever-increasing numbers just as they 
had done in Capernaum, and He went on teaching them as 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 285 


they came. And the “again” of our verse points to the 
call of the four disciples which is the only previous event 
at the lakeside. Following the call of the four fishermen, 
recorded in Mark 1: 16-20 and Matthew 4: 18-22, Jesus 
went on a tour through Galilee, returning after a week’s 
absence to Capernaum where, to the amazement of the 
people, the paralytic was restored to normal health. Jesus, 
it will be recalled, forgives the man’s sins, thus removing 
the cause which produced the disease. The protest of the 
scribes against what they considered an act of blasphemy 
on the part of Jesus falls on deaf ears. The charge of 
blasphemy in the face of such a remarkable cure was no 
barrier to Christ’s growing popularity, as may be seen 
from the success of His lakeside preaching. He simply 
could not escape the eager crowd that followed Him to the 
shore of the lake, whither He had gone after proving His 
claim to forgive sins by curing the paralytic. 

Can it be possible that Levi, the tax-gatherer, could have 
been ignorant of what had transpired in the vicinity? It 
is hardly likely, for Matthew the publican was too alert 
for that. By this time Jesus had been preaching and 
teaching long enough to call the attention of men to Him- 
self. His manner of teaching which differed so widely 
from the traditional methods of the scribes and Pharisees, 
together with the attack recently directed against Him in 
connection with the cure of the paralytic, must have made 
Jesus the most talked of personality in the vicinity. Mur- 
muring scribes and Pharisees could not prevent the multi- 
tudes from resorting to Him, least of all the toll-gatherers 
in the vicinity, who had been excommunicated by the re- 
ligious authorities of the day. The people confided in the 
evidence of their experience which never saw it on this 
fashion. The Man of Galilee was so different from any- 
one they had ever heard, the force of His personality and 
His broad human sympathies seemed to draw men to Him, 


286 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


with the possible exception of the supercilious Pharisees 
who came only to criticize and to find fault. Among the 
people who came to hear Him as He taught by the seaside 
were men of all classes. We do not know whether Levi, 
the tax-gatherer, heard Jesus preach on this occasion or 
not. But considering the locality, it may be assumed that 
he had some knowledge of Jesus and His message before 
he was called. In all probability he had heard some of His 
discourses or had witnessed some of the mighty deeds 
which the great Teacher performed. At all events there 
must have been ample opportunity to see Jesus on more 
than one occasion, since He had been in the community 
once before (compare Mark 1:16). The publican, like 
others of his class, doubtless listened to Jesus, whenever 
the opportunity presented itself. Whatever others may 
think of him as a publican, the duties of a man who was 
looked upon as an apostate from the national faith and 
hope, cannot altogether obscure the deeper longings of his 
soul after higher things. He is not the type of man who 
would miss the opportunity of seeing and hearing the most 
popular man in all Galilee, all the more so in those days 
when the scene of Jesus’ teaching and preaching activities 
had changed from the synagogue to the familiar surround- 
ings at the lakeside, with its numerous boats and fisher- 
men plying their trade. Nearby was the busy highway of 
eastern commerce, since Capernaum was on the road lead- 
ing from Damascus to the Mediterranean. 

This road ran along the northern end of the Sea of 
Galilee and crossing the border-line between the tetrarchy 
of Philip and the territory of Herod Antipas, it turned 
thence, northwards and westwards, uniting with the Up- 
per Galilean road which terminated at Acre along the 
Mediterranean seaboard. Capernaum was a busy frontier 
town of considerable importance, situated at the fork of 
great roads, which diverged and led to Jerusalem, to Da- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 287 


mascus, to Tyre and to Sepphoris. The presence of a 
rather large number of custom house officers in Caper- 
naum is accounted for by the fact that the town was situ- 
ated on the borders of the territory of Herod Antipas. 
These men were entrusted with the highly unpopular task 
of collecting customs and dues on goods passing in and 
out of the above-mentioned territory. With Czsar’s per- 
mission the customs at Capernaum were levied for Herod 
Antipas, much of whose income came from this source of 
revenue. ‘There must have been a tax-office of consider- 
able importance outside the city by the lake. One of these 
toll-gatherers was Levi, who was not a Roman official but 
a sub-tax-collector, either directly in the employ of the 
reigning prince or of a tax-contractor, who had purchased 
for a certain amount the right of collecting the taxes in 
this district. From the synoptic narrative we learn that 
Jesus found him sitting at his toll-booth, presumably in the 
act of levying dues from his fellow-countrymen who, by 
reason of their religious prerogatives and theocratic hopes, 
frowned on the very idea of paying taxes to a prince, 
whose authority in Galilee depended entirely upon the 
goodwill of a heathen conqueror claiming rights and privi- 
leges which belonged to none other but Jehovah, the God 
of Israel. And yet, for reasons of His own, Jesus, at the 
conclusion of His lakeside discourse, invites this repre- 
sentative of a despised class to join the inner circle of His 
disciples. “ And as He passed by He saw Levi, the son of 
Alpheus, sitting at the toll-house and He saith unto him, 
Follow Me.” . 

In the parallel accounts of the call, the new disciple bears 
two names. Mark and Luke speak of him as Levi, the 
name by which he was known before he was called, while 
in Matthew 9:9, where the same event is told in almost 
identical language, Levi is identified with Matthew, the 
name by which he was known as an apostle and member of 


288 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the Christian community. Why Levi the toll-gatherer 
should be called Matthew, “ The gift of Jehoyah,” is not 
stated. Possibly Jesus, perceiving the direct hand of God 
in this event, gave him the surname of Matthew as a re- 
minder of his new calling. A change of name in the pres- 
ent instance, pointing to a change in heart and life, would 
be very acceptable to a despised tax-gatherer, who had 
grown weary of his hateful occupation. It did not take 
him long to make up his mind to accept the Master’s invi- 
tation. ‘The plain, direct invitation, “ Follow Me,” ad- 
dressed to him in the form of an imperative, is equivalent 
to a summons to permanent discipleship involving, as in 
the case of the first disciples, personal attendance on the 
great Teacher whose constant follower he was to be. 
“Follow Me” as your spiritual Master and I will fit you 
for service in the kingdom of heaven. Become one of My 
intimate disciples and, instead of writing down on a sheet 
of parchment the amount of revenue you collected from a 
reluctant population, you will one day be able to pen a 
faithful record of your Master’s life and teachings, which 
will be eagerly read and studied by the subjects of the 
King of kings. Little did he dream that he was destined 
to become the writer of a treatise which stands first in the 
New Testament and which has been more widely circu- 
lated and read than any other composition written by man. 
He obeys the call and immediately becomes a follower of 
Jesus. In Luke 5:28 we read, “ And he forsook all, rose 
up and followed Him.” 

The line of cleavage between the lucrative post of a 
greedy tax-collector and the present call to discipleship is 
clear-cut and distinct. In one sense his response to the 
call of Jesus was a greater act of faith than that of the 
first four disciples. By becoming a disciple he burns, as it 
were, his bridges behind him. An occasional excursion to 
some profitable toll-booth for the sake of supplementing 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 289 


his income is impossible. For him there is to be no occa- 
sional fishing trip while the Master is tarrying in Caper- 
naum; for him it is a case of “the night and nothing.” 
From the standpoint of material gain he had more to lose 
than the Galilzan fishermen. To give up his lucrative 
post in the tax-office argues the utmost confidence in Jesus 
and His mission. A man of his practical bent of mind 
certainly knew that he risked everything by following 
Jesus. He also knew full well that in the event of failure 
it would be exceedingly hard for an ex-toll-gatherer to 
find any other employment among a people who regarded 
a Hebrew publican as a renegade Jew. Whether he as a 
young man could live in such an event on the means which 
he had already acquired is uncertain. That he had some 
means is evident from the feast he prepared in Christ’s 
honour, but this in itself does not argue great wealth. 
However this may be, the call of Jesus finds him inwardly 
prepared for the outward surrender that he makes, and he 
makes the sacrifice gladly and cheerfully. He is not con- 
cerned about temporal rewards, like the Galilzean scribe, 
who came to Jesus saying, ‘‘ Master, I will follow Thee 
whithersoever Thou goest.” 

But Jesus reminds the man of the hardships of disciple- 
ship, incidental to a life of continuous wandering. Evi- 
dently the man had been accustomed to an easy life and 
hence the admonition. A warning of this sort was un- 
necessary in the case of Matthew. We are quite sure that 
the publican was not selected solely for his readiness in 
wielding a pen; in that case, the scribe would have been a 
better selection. Matthew was chosen as a member of the 
apostolic band because of his spiritual preparedness for 
the duties of discipleship. Jesus, we are told, fixed His 
eyes upon him and being satisfied with the man’s qualifica- 
tions, He selected him as a constant companion. The call 
was as swiftly obeyed as that of the Galilean fishermen. 


a 


290 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


The call of the latter, as we know, is narrated with equal 
abruptness in the synoptic account, since the Evangelists 
were interested in the call itself rather than in the dis- 
ciples’ previous acquaintance with Jesus. The informa- 
tion that the four disciples were well acquainted with 
Jesus when they were called is incidentally supplied in 
the Fourth Gospel by one of the eye-witnesses himself. 
»*The Synoptists concerned themselves only about the 
crisis in the lives of these men, passing over in silence 
all details bearing on the preparatory stages of the call 
itself. 

While there is no information of any previous acquain- 
tance such as might prepare Matthew for immediate com- 
pliance with Christ’s command, it is absolutely certain that 
the tax-gatherer of Capernaum, like the sons of Jona and 
of Zebedee, knew something of Jesus before he was called. 
A man forsaking a profitable calling in order to follow 
Christ would find a way to make His acquaintance or 
listen to His teaching. Doubtless he had been powerfully 
affected by His preaching and healing activity. Of the 
two, Christ’s teaching must have had the greater effect 
upon the publican. Ordinarily men cannot be startled into 
faith by miraculous deeds, for the man who cannot believe 
without signs and wonders is ever prone to explain away 
the supernatural by forcing it into the all-inclusive mould 
of secondary causes. A miracle in and of itself cannot 
produce that faith which Jesus demands, otherwise the 
people of Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida would have 
repented in sackcloth and ashes. Levi’s faith in Jesus was 
more than mere astonishment; it was a deep-seated faith 
rooted in his inmost being. Christ’s teaching about a lov- 
ing Father who is ready to forgive every repentant child 
of His, touched his heart and was now beginning to change 
the whole course of his life. While others kept on won- 
dering and talking about the mighty Healer, he began to 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 291 


repent of his past life, preferring the kingdom of heaven 
and its rewards to the temporary rewards of an iniquitous 
system of taxation. Would it be too much to assume that 
Levi may have been among the many toll-gatherers who 
had listened to the stern message of John the Baptist, ad- 
monishing them to avoid the besetting sin of avarice and 
unbrotherliness? At any rate, he now abhorred the old 
life with all its heartlessness, selfishness and greed. The 
voice of Jesus, it seems, had penetrated his heart. Did 
Jesus that day, when He fixed His eyes upon him as if to 
study his character, discover what had taken place? His 
instantaneous response to the call proves that he no longer 
had his eye on the shekels of a lucrative position, but on 
something higher. The call of Jesus probably brought to 
a crisis and decision thoughts which were already begin- 
ning to take shape in Levi’s mind. 

Levi-Matthew seeks to impart his new-found joy to 
others by inviting his former associates to a feast given 
by him in Christ’s honour in the hope that other members 
of the same class might be led to follow his new Master. 
“And Levi made Him a great feast in his house, and 
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus 
and His disciples.” It was a jubilee feast commemorative 
of his emancipation from constant temptation to rapacious 
injustice. The joy of a new freedom and the beautiful 
prospect of a life of fellowship with Jesus prompts him, 
with the characteristic zeal of a young disciple, to induce 
others to follow his example and exchange the old life 
with its crooked paths and pitfalls for the straight path of 
gospel truth. As a first missionary effort the ex-publican 
seeks to bring his old friends and Jesus together. But the 
preparations for such a festal gathering would take a little 
time. It is unnecessary to assume, therefore, that the cele- 
bration of this decisive change in Matthew’s life took place 
the same day he was called. The exact date of the call 


292 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


can only be approximated, owing to the nature of the evi- 
dence. However, it is certain that it preceded the choosing 
of the twelve apostles and the Sermon on the Mount. 
From the context itself we gather that it followed the call 
of the first four disciples and that Jesus had been teaching 
long enough to arouse the antagonism of the Jewish hier- 
archy. ‘The first conflict occurred in connection with the 
healing of the paralytic. The banquet in the house of Levi 
occasioned a second conflict. But the scribes and the 
Pharisees, fresh from their discomfiture about the para- 
lytic, prefer to aim their attack this time at the disciples, 
whom they could approach with greater freedom, possibly 
hoping to intimidate them with a show of authority and 
superior technical knowledge in matters of religion and 
social etiquette. ‘‘ When they saw that He was eating 
with the sinners and publicans, they said unto His dis- 
ciples, He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sin- 
ners!” In Matthew 9:11 this emphatic statement in 
Mark’s account is put in the form of a question. Accord- 
ing to Luke 5:30, members of the Pharisaic party “ mur- 
mured against His disciples saying, Why do ye eat and 
drink with the publicans and sinners?” 

The ecclesiastical authorities in Capernaum, belonging 
to the Pharisaic order which had its seat in Jerusalem, 
sought to discredit Jesus in the eyes of His disciples by 
making sinister reflections about Him and the motly gath- 
ering in the house of a despised publican. Misinterpreting 
His motives and questioning His prophetic authority, they 
deemed it their duty to watch His doings as they watched 
those of the stern preacher of repentance in the Jordan 
Valley. They objected to His methods and His way of 
doing things. They took exception to recent develop- 
ments. We noticed how, at the healing of the paralytic, 
they protested against what they regarded as an act of 
blasphemy. The pronouncement of absolution upon a sin- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 293 


ful paralytic is succeeded by the selection of a tax-collector 
for a religious mission, that is to say, of a man beyond the 
pale of the legal requirements, and whose sins were looked 
upon as a barrier to repentance. How strange that Jesus 
should call a publican! The poor fishermen whom He had 
chosen were not the kind of men the average rabbi would 
have selected to follow him in the capacity of a learner. 
The proud scribes and Pharisees possibly ridiculed the 
choice but, then, the Galilzan fishermen, though untutored 
and unskilled in technical details, were honest, loyal, law- 
abiding Israelites. But here is Levi! What teacher would 
think of asking a man so odious to the people by reason of 
his unpopular office at the lakeside to become a disciple! 
_ And that is what Jesus did! And then to think of it, He 
rejected the scribe who offered to follow Him and called 
the publican! But that is not all! Not satisfied with 
calling one of the toll-gatherers, He consorts with them as 
a class by eating and drinking with the publicans of Caper- 
naum and their associates in the house of Matthew. 
From the point of view of men who set the standard for 
the whole country, this was a public violation of acknowl- 
edged Jewish propriety and decorum. The social and re- 
ligious barriers existing between the Pharisees and the 
members of such a hated calling render it unlikely that the 
former would enter the house of a tax-collector, although, 
according to eastern custom, a person could enter a house 
during a meal and actually take part in the conversation 
without sharing in the food. We can hardly conceive that 
these dignified teachers would push their way into the open 
court of the house as uninvited spectators and look on out 
of curiosity while a meal was in progress at a tax- 
collector’s house. They would not contaminate themselves 
by such proximity. Possibly Christ’s watchful opponents 
seeing from a distance a large number of guests approach- 
ing the ex-publican’s house at meal-time, waited for the 


294 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


guests to disperse before remonstrating with the disciples 
about the impropriety of accepting the hospitality of pub- 
licans and sinners. No rabbi would do such a thing. The 
criticism was calculated to discredit Jesus in the eyes of 
the disciples and to shake their confidence in His claims. 
Perhaps the disciples are in need of some instruction in 
rabbinical lore, according to which a man may incur the 
danger of ceremonial defilement by eating with lapsed 
members of the Jewish church. As orthodox Jews, they 
ought not to be altogether unaware of the fact that eating 
with publicans and Gentiles is strictly prohibited by their 
own rabbis and that to eat with these infamous tax- 
collectors is to act contrary to the religious feeling of the 
country, for to break bread with another is a token of 
mutual regard and confidence. Let them stop and con- 
sider for a moment the company they have been keeping. 
Do they really want to know why the Pharisees look upon 
the tax-gatherers as great sinners? If so, let them ponder 
the following considerations. 

For one thing, their employment is such as to make it 
almost impossible for them to keep the law as the Phari- 
sees did. As custom house officers they had to collect toll 
from Greek merchants crossing the frontier with their 
caravans on the Sabbath day. Thus they not only broke 
the Sabbath but also came into contact with Gentiles, in- 
stead of avoiding such contact in accordance with rab- 
binical rules. These backsliders hardly ever made a 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem to the national sanctuary. Then, 
again, the moral side of the question is not to be over- 
looked. Surely they cannot be unaware of the fraudulent 
and extortionate methods employed by some of these un- 
principled men! As every one will concede, bribes and 
corruption of every sort would be the natural outcome of 
the Roman practice of farming out the taxes to the highest 
bidder who frequently reimbursed himself by high-handed 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 295 


methods. Such a system would make men avaricious and 
unscrupulous, hard and tyrannical. Hebrew publicans 
were regarded as little better than heathen. The tax-con- 
tractor of the district selected them because their knowl- 
edge of the people and of local conditions in general would 
expedite the work. As patriots, the Jews hated them with 
a perfect hatred because they had accepted service under 
tax-contractors who were responsible to a Galilean tet- 
rarch holding office by Czsar’s permission. This feeling 
was even more intense in Judzea, where the taxes were 
levied by publicans and paid directly to the Roman gov- 
ernment. Asa rule the publicans were more interested in 
their personal enrichment than in the national aspirations 
and consequently the Pharisees and the people in general 
looked down on them with scorn. 

They never gave a thought, apparently, to the religious 
and social effects of their unpatriotic employment. So far 
as they were concerned, they did not scruple to break 
down the legal barriers of Judaism by establishing con- 
tacts with heathen tradesmen and with those who were 
ceremonially unclean. Contact with publicans and Gen- 
tiles ; in short, with those who stood outside of religion as 
defined by the Pharisees, must be avoided for fear of cere- 
monial defilement. To eat with these “ sinners,” according 
to the same authorities, was a form of abomination of the 
worst type. The Pharisees, as the name itself indicates, 
must “separate ’’ themselves from persons who do not 
keep the legal precepts of Judaism. These “ separatists ”’ 
and their followers believed that if Israel was to become 
worthy of the divine salvation it would be necessary to 
establish a wall of separation between a holy people and 
outsiders in general as a means of avoiding all contamina- 
tion and transgression prohibited by law. But the holiness 
upon which the emphasis is placed is little short of the 
ceremonial holiness of a ritualistic code rather than the 


296 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ethical holiness of Hebrew prophecy. Israel is to be a 
nation apart from every other nation living within the 
cloistered security of an exclusive and stultifying legalism. 
Pharisaism had reduced religion to a law. While the ob- 
servance of a well-defined law hedged in the nation and 
kept it from losing its identity after the exile, the emphasis 
in Pharisaic times was placed upon external performances 
rather than upon the internal motive or the spirit under- 
lying it all. The appeal was to an external law code rather 
than to the dynamic of love to God and man. Men felt 
satisfied if the external act was in conformity with strict 
legal righteousness. Religion played around surface ap- 
pearances because it failed to go to the heart of the matter. 
It lacked love. This is why the Pharisees, in their insis- 
tence upon legal precision, separated themselves from pub- 
licans and sinners, leaving them to their fate. In their 
opinion anyone not having a practical working knowledge 
of the law was accursed. 

But Jesus had something better to propose than a re- 
ligion walled up in an endless maze of legal ordinances. 
Turning to the sanctimonious fault-finders, who in direct- 
ing their complaint to the disciples really meant to attack 
their Master, Jesus makes the ever-memorable reply, 
“They that are whole have no need of a physician, but 
they that are sick.” © The strong and healthy do not need 
a doctor, but only the sick. 

Jesus applies the parable of the physician directly to 
Himself. As the Healer of sinners He must establish 
healing contacts with His patients. ‘‘ My clinic,” He says 
in effect, “is among publicans and sinners; they are sick 
and need healing. My patients are in the isolation hospital 
of Pharisaic neglect, since the doctors of My people prefer 
to restrict their medical practice to the lighter cases. Men 
labeled by these superficial doctors as incurable have been 
relegated either to the hospital for incurable diseases or to 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 297 


the ‘County Hospital’ outside the camp of Israel. And 
the sad part of it is, they have made no provision for the 
medical treatment of these outcasts of society. The doc- 
tors of Judaism will have nothing to do with them. Their 
constant cry is, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ and they separate 
themselves, turn away, and pass by on the other’ side for 
fear of contagious contamination. And the task of treat- 
ing them is left to Me alone. How My heart aches at the 
contemplation of their many ills! They are ill, desperately 
ill, and they know it. They realize their need and how 
glad they are to have Me in their midst! And how readily 
some of them respond to proper treatment! Recently one 
of these supposed incurables was healed of his malady and 
he, along with other co-workers, has now become one of 
My assistants in this work of mercy and loving service to 
lost humanity. The prospects for further cures are appar- 
ent on every hand. Look at this company of people. You 
have ostracised them; you have excommunicated them 
from the house of God, thereby restricting the ‘balm of 
Gilead’ to those who shoulder the burdens you have im- 
posed ; you will have nothing to do with them because you 
shun the disease which is afflicting them. But look and see 
how the medicine of an unadulterated gospel is beginning 
to work! One of the patients in the public ward of this 
moral and spiritual sanitarium has already repented of his 
sins ; others are about to follow his example, and should I 
not have compassion upon them? Where should the Phy- 
sician be but among the sick or, dropping the figure, is it 
not the function of a Saviour to save? Oh, it pays to be 
the Friend of neglected sinners! I tell you, it pays; it 
pays! Go ye and learn what this meaneth—Merciful love 
I desire and not sacrifice.” . 

Instead of coming and disturbing the disciples, the 
carping critics are told to go and study the meaning of the 
Word of God in Hosea 6:6. It is interesting to note, in 


298 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


passing, that in Hosea 6:1 God is referred to as the 
Healer or Physician of a sick people. The national fail- 
ings and sins of Ephraim, or of the northern kingdom, are 
described figuratively as “ sickness ” and the “ wound ” of 
Judah is only another name for the sins of the southern 
kingdom (5:13). What a wealth of meaning, therefore, 
jies in the figure which Jesus employed in speaking of 
Himself as the Physician of spiritually sick people! The 
efforts of Jehovah to heal a desperately sick but unwilling 
people are now continued by the Messiah of history who 
summons sick souls to be cured. The quotation from 
Hosea 6:6 must have been familiar to men who professed 
to be zealous students of the Old Testament, but while 
they had memorized the words, they had missed the 
prophet’s meaning. It is perfectly obvious that Jesus did 
not mean to imply that sacrifice is worthless. In its ab- 
breviated form, the first half of the verse, superficially 
considered, looks like a rejection of sacrificial offerings. 
But this is not the case; indeed, we are absolutely sure that 
it was not understood that way, either by the Master Him- 
self or by His carping complainers. For be it remembered 
that in this passage of Hosea we are dealing with one of 
the simplest forms of Hebrew poetry. The verse to which 
our quotation belongs is divided into two parts closely 
parallel to each other in thought and meaning. So, then, 
the easiest way to interpret this quotation is to go to the 
second half of the verse and here we have, “ And the 
knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.” The verse 
in full reads as follows: (a) “ Merciful love I desire and 
not sacrifice, (b) and the knowledge of God more than 
burnt-offerings.” The thought expressed in the second 
half of the verse is practically parallel with our quotation, 
as will appear presently. By bearing in mind the second 
half of the verse, the sense of Jesus’ quotation becomes at 
once apparent. Our Lord means to say that in God’s 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 299 


sight acts of mercy springing from love to God and man 
are worth more than the sacrifice of rams and bullocks 
just as a practical knowledge of God is worth more than 
burnt-offerings. 

The “knowledge of God,” according to Biblical usage, 
is not an intellectual thing. It is knowledge in action, not 
in terms of speculative thought but of living service. This 
knowledge has a decidedly practical bearing upon the 
duties of every-day life. To know God means to know 
something of God’s character as it has been revealed to 
us in the past, and more especially in His dealings with 
Israel. The whole course of sacred history can be ac- 
counted for on the basis of God’s love for His people, love 
being His chief characteristic. The knowledge of God, 
then, has reference to a true knowledge of God’s char- 
acter. Such knowledge ought to lead a man to repentance, 
especially when he sees his shortcomings in the light of 
God’s revealed character. He ought to feel a strong de- 
sire to imitate in his life this chief characteristic of God 
which is love. In Hosea 6:4 God rebukes Israel for its 
failure to exhibit this element of His character in the na- 
tional life, saying, ‘‘ What shall I make of thee, Ephraim? 
What shall I make of thee, Judah? since your love is like 
a morning cloud and like the dew so early gone.” To 
sacrifice animal victims upon the altar is not repentance 
for past misdeeds. Real repentance includes not only a 
Godly sorrow for sin but also a desire to conform one’s 
ways to the will of God. Formal sacrifices will not bring 
forgiveness to a loveless, ungodly heart; they are no sub- 
stitute for loving conduct, for “ merciful love I have de- 
sired and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more 
than burnt-offerings.” 

The knowledge of God, rightly understood, is followed 
by a loving sense of duty to one’s fellowmen. ‘This is the 
underlying principle of Hosea 6:6, which the Pharisees 


300 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


had overlooked. They laid stress on the ritualistic aspect 
of the passage—on the “sacrifices” and “ burnt-offer- 
ings,” which were a part of the formal worship at the 
central sanctuary. ‘They overemphasized the legal and 
ceremonial aspects of religion while Jesus, because of the 
Pharisees’ over-emphasis upon this very thing, emphasized 
the weightier matters of the law, which found expression 
in walking humbly with God, in faith and loving service. 
As over against the legal method of the Pharisees, Jesus 
put His finger upon the method of the prophets, that is to 
say, upon the moral side of religion which must ever be 
regarded as a necessary element in religion. From what 
has been said it is superfluous to add that Jesus was not an 
opponent of the ceremonial law as such. That He had 
nothing to interpose to its observance follows from -pas-— 
sages like Matthew 5: 17-19 and 23: 3, 23. But Jesus has 
no patience with a one-sided ceremonial legalism which 
sets aside the fundamental requirement of both the law 
and the prophets, and this He finds in loving sympathy 
and compassion to those in need. If God places a higher 
value upon love and mercy than upon sacrifice, then it fol- 
lows that the blessed work of bending down to meet in 
compassionate love the submerged and ostracised classes, 
so that the snapped circle of humanity may be restored, is 
worth more than the vain attempt of the Pharisees to 
prove their zeal for righteousness by separating them- 
selves, in a heartless manner, from the transgressors of 
the law. By showing mercy Jesus interprets to the world 
the very heart of God, thereby laying the foundation for 
every charitable and philanthropic undertaking and for the 
greatest of all enterprises—the glorious work of evangel- 
ization on the home and foreign field. 

Christ’s argument as to the necessity of His way of pro- 
cedure is unanswerable, since it goes to the root of the 
whole matter. To imitate God’s character and to manifest 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 301 


compassion upon those in distress is far more acceptable 
to God than any number of outward offerings and formal 
acts of homage. As love is an essential part of religion 
the Pharisees must read in the quotation from Hosea their 
own condemnation, for this is the very thing they lack. 
Incidentally it points to a loveless heart, full of prejudice, 
harshness and bitter hatred. If they are willing to make 
love the basis of their attitude to God and man, then well 
and good, but if not, they can have neither part nor lot in 
the kingdom of the Messiah. The scribes think they have 
done their duty when they keep the law which they have 
studied in all its details. But legal righteousness will not 
avail since it lacks the fundamental requirement of the 
law, which is love. Not until they grasp this fundamental 
principle of religion will they understand why Jesus should 
associate with sinners. The latter realized how sinful they 
were, while the former felt satisfied with their past ac- 
complishments. In the present state of their mind, Jesus 
can do nothing for the scribes and Pharisees. Conse- 
quently He must turn from those who look for nothing 
higher in religion than legal righteousness, to “ sinners,” 
who offer a far better soil for evangelic truth than the 
self-conceited Pharisees. “I came not to call the right- 
eous but sinners to repentance.” For this announcement 
of Christ’s mission on earth we have to thank the Phari- 
sees and we now understand what is meant by the parable 
of the physician. We learn, among other things, that the 
contrast expressed in the above figure by “healthy ” and 
“sick” is equivalent to the terms “righteous” and 
“ sinners.” 

But from what has already been said about the way of 
righteousness marked out by the scribes, the really “ sick ” 
may be the carping questioners themselves, who are far 
from righteous according to the underlying principle of 
Old Testament morality, although they may be regarded as 


802 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 

such from a purely legal standpoint. For the moment, 
however, Jesus takes them at their own valuation and 
therein finds His defense. He justifies His conduct in 
associating with publicans and sinners on the basis of His 
mission, which is to those who personally feel the need of 
it. As He was come to seek and to save that which was 
lost, His mission is not to the “righteous,” even if such 
were to be found, but to the sinners who need His loving 
sympathy and compassion. He is the Physician of sick 
souls and He is come to heal sinners. Although this Phy- 
sician does not ignore the ills of the body, as we learn from 
the gospel narrative, His healing activity addresses itself 
first and foremost to the moral and spiritual ills of life. 
He is the Healer of sinners who brings spiritual renewal, 
spiritual health and moral vigour. His presence is medi- 
cinal, so to speak, to mind and heart, to soul and spirit. 
He is chiefly concerned with the spiritual effect of His 
mission, for He came to call sinners to repentance, which 
has reference to a change of mind and heart under a new 
impression of spiritual facts. He does not look upon the 
submerged classes as beyond the possibility of redemption 
through repentance and faith in the larger possibilities of 
the kingdom of God. The door to this kingdom is open to 
every man, irrespective of class or nation, who shows the 
proper attitude toward it. Jesus virtually declares a gos- 
pel for sinners. 

But has He no message for the righteous? Not as such, 
The whole drift of the argument points to the inadequacy 
of legal standards of righteousness. The “ righteous ” 
must admit the insufficiency of a superficial literalism, 
which leaves untouched the deeper and more basic things 
of Old Testament law and prophecy before He can do 
anything for them. Jesus shows elsewhere that the arti- 
ficial distinction between “ righteous ” and “ sinners ” can- 
not hold. The “righteous” Pharisees devoured widows’ 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 303 


houses under the cloak of legal respectability and thanked 
God that they were not as other men. The unrighteous 
publicans, on the other hand, were honest enough to con- 
fess their sins and so fulfil the first condition of. cure. 
Christ’s call to sinners is expressly said to be a call to re- 
pentance. Any man who has nothing to confess cannot be 
sincere either with himself or with his God. The publican 
in the parable who smote upon his breast is a fit candidate 
for entrance into a kingdom of redeemed sinners. He is 
the type of man Jesus will select as His co-worker. 

The number of disciples already gained was gradually 
increased to twelve. The call of Matthew was no doubt 
speedily followed by the selection of the men still needed 
to complete the apostolic nucleus of a new Israel. ‘The 
time of their appointment can only be approximated. 
Matthew, as we have seen, records the selection by Jesus 
of the two pairs of brothers and Levi the tax-gatherer, but 
makes no mention of a special call of the apostolic band as 
such. He evidently presupposes it in his account of their 
missionary tour in Galilee. By that time the requisite 
number had been already made up, for they are spoken of 
in the tenth chapter as “ His twelve disciples.” All that 
the Evangelist says in that connection is that when Jesus 
“had called unto Him His twelve disciples,’ He sent them 
forth on their first missionary journey after they had re- 
ceived some preliminary instruction as to the nature of the 
work which they were expected to do. But according to 
Mark the ‘Twelve were called some time before they were 
sent forth on their preaching and healing mission. He 
tells us that Jesus ascended the well-known hill in the 
vicinity of Capernaum and there called “ unto Him whom 
He Himself desired.” In Matthew this ascent introduces 
the Sermon on the Mount and in Luke the call of the 
Twelve precedes that event, leaving us to infer that the 
Twelve were chosen immediately before the delivery of the 


804 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Sermon on the Mount. From the contextual setting of 
Mark 3: 13-19 and Luke 6: 12-19, where the appointment 
of the Twelve is briefly described, it appears that Jesus 
had been preaching for some months before the choice was 
made. Galilee had been deeply stirred by His ministry. 
Kager Galilzans followed Him from place to place. This 
throng gradually assumed phenomenal proportions. From 
all parts of the country the people came in great masses, 
bringing with them a host of human wreckage. But the 
spread of His fame throughout all Palestine and the ad- 
joining regions aroused the opposition of the Pharisees, 
who were already consulting the Herodians as to how they 
might destroy Him. They had taken offense, among other 
things, at Christ’s healing activity on the Sabbath day. 
Jesus, however, in order to avoid fruitless controversy 
with His enemies, repairs to the lakeside, where He is soon 
surrounded by an enthusiastic multitude, Indeed, the mul- 
titude was so great at times that it was necessary for Him 
to withdraw in a boat which the disciples kept in readiness 
for just such occasions. 

Apparently the work of Jesus had grown on His hands 
to almost unmanageable proportions. Popular enthusiasm 
was opening opportunities on a vast scale, demanding not 
one but many workers. The need for helpers and assist- 
ants in the work of preaching and healing was most im- 
perative, all the more so because of the hostile attitude of 
the Pharisees, who represented the most powerful forces 
in Judaism. If this need is to be met Jesus must multiply 
Himself, as it were, in His disciples who are to share in | 
the work of their Master. Provision must be made not 
only for present but also for future needs. Up to this 
time Jesus had worked single-handed. But now the ever- 
widening circle of those among whom He had to work was 
calling for some kind of organization and division of 
labour. The growth of our Lord’s work required co- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 805 


operative effort, as it was a physical impossibility for Jesus 
to be everywhere at one and the same time. Conditions 
were ripe for the selection of the members of the apostolic 
college. Luke marks the importance of the occasion by in- 
forming us that the choice was made after a night spent in 
prayer on a mountain near Capernaum. It was a mo- 
mentous step, for which retirement was necessary. Jesus 
must have time to think and pray over it. A decision like 
this can only be reached after consultation with the Father. 
Accordingly Jesus withdraws from the distracting scenes 
of a busy life to the quietness of the hill-country, probably 
to the place where He subsequently delivered His great 
sermon, in order to be alone with God. Not far from the 
mountain-top to which He withdrew, a large number of 
His followers, whom He had previously summoned by in- 
dividual selection, were awaiting His return. There on 
the mountain-top, away from all earthly influences, Jesus 
that night went over the list of likely candidates, as it were, 
presenting them all one by one to His Father in order to 
ascertain the divine will concerning the personnel of His 
Cabinet. The following morning He selected from the 
larger circle of His followers the twelve apostles. Why 
twelve men, and no more, should constitute that inner cir- 
cle is not expressly stated. But as this is Christ’s first act 
in the corporate organization of His Church, there can be 
little doubt that the number twelve is in clear allusion to 
the tribes of a new Israel. And, besides, this number of 
twelve had its sacred associations. "There were, for in- 
stance, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, the twelve 
stones on the breastplate of the High Priest, the twelve 
loaves of the shewbread, etc. Henceforth the Twelve 
were to be regarded as the official representatives of 
Christ’s kingdom. The threefold purpose of their ap- 
pointment is described in Mark 3:14-15. Here we read, 
“ And He appointed twelve that they might be with Him, 


806 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


and that He might send them forth to preach and to have 
authority to cast out demons.” 

The primary reason for the choice was fellowship or 
constant association with Himself. Instead of the large 
but fluctuating numbers of those who have till now been 
following Him, Jesus concentrates His efforts upon a 
comparatively small circle of disciples. They are to “be 
with Him” constantly that He might train them for their 
future work. If they are to teach others, they must sit at 
the Master’s feet and learn of Him. They must catch the 
inspiration of His matchless words and of His unique per- 
sonality. They are to witness His deeds and ultimately 
rise to the height of a victorious faith in the Son of God. 
This being with Jesus is to be their high school, or college, 
or seminary course. And what a wonderful training 
school it must have been! Those taught were far from 
perfect, but they were perfectible. Jesus, the incomparable 
Teacher, met with great success. And although Judas 
Iscariot was a failure, any school in which only one fails 
is certainly a noteworthy school! ‘That his faith in the 
Messiahship of Jesus began to wane toward the close of 
Christ’s ministry is no indication that he was not a genu- 
ine disciple, when Jesus first selected him as an apostle of 
the new kingdom. No one would be foolish enough to 
assume that Judas was a traitor at heart when he was 
chosen. Had the treasurer of the apostolic band not be- 
come the victim of the demon of covetousness he might 
have developed into as grand an apostle as the best of 
them. On the basis of his previous business experience he 
later developed “an eye for business,” in spite of the Mas- 
ter’s admonition, “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
all these things shall be added unto you.” A man who is 
more interested in his own concerns than in the Master’s 
business will naturally fail to understand the spiritual pro- 
gram of Jesus. The betrayer was a double-minded man 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 307 


who believed in putting self uppermost. He was mean 
enough to appropriate to his own uses money out of the 
common fund, with which he had been entrusted. John 
12: 6 states that the fault-finding pursebearer of the apos- 
tolic band was a petty thief. Self-love is always capable 
of treachery and bad faith. What a solemn lesson this is 
to the Master’s disciples everywhere. A man may fall 
from his high spiritual estate by setting his heart upon 
earthly things. The sin of Judas has not become extinct. 
Some nominal Christians will sell their Lord for less than 
thirty pieces of silver, for what are the intangible rewards 
of a purely spiritual kingdom to a worshipper of earthly 
success! But to return to the men who left all to be with 
Jesus, so that they might afterwards be His witnesses and 
carry forward His work. 

The second reason for the selection by Jesus of the 
twelve apostles was “that He might send them forth to 
preach.” Through their constant association with the 
great Teacher and Preacher, they were to be trained for 
their future vocation as preachers and teachers of divine 
truth. Thereby Jesus intends to make true in the case of 
the Twelve the words He had spoken to the two pairs of 
brothers at the commencement of His Galilean ministry, 
when He said, “ Come ye after Me, and I will make you to 
become fishers of men.” Ere they are allowed to witness 
for the truth as it is in Jesus, they are first admitted into 
the sacred college of residence with Him. The work of 
preaching, whatever else it may involve, certainly presup- 
poses seclusion with Jesus. This is not to undervalue the 
place of true scholarship and intellectual attainment in 
ministerial education. The best cure for intellectual stag- 
nation is abiding fellowship with Christ. Before they can 
act as His messengers in the work of proclaiming the good 
news of salvation they must “be with Him.” He will 
give His chief attention to the training of the immediate 


808 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


followers till He is able to send them forth as the Father 
had sent Him. The very title given to the Twelve points 
to the ultimate purpose for which they were called. They 
were named apostles by Jesus, because He was thinking of 
their future work. The twelve apostles were to be the first 
missionaries. After training them, Jesus wished to “ send 
them forth,” and the Latin equivalent also means “ one 
who is sent” on a mission. The apostle is a missionary or 
messenger, heralding the good news of salvation. He is 
more than a mere witness; he is a delegated witness, if you 
please, who speaks for God. He is an envoy or ambassa- 
dor of Jesus Christ, sent by Him, as He was sent by the 
Father. He speaks with the authority of a chosen repre- 
sentative. He is to act as a herald of the Messianic King, 
and a herald is an official who makes public proclamation 
of weighty matters. The proclamation of the apostles has 
to do with the coming kingdom. Although they would not 
be able to preach as Jesus preached, they could give men 
some idea of the Father of Jesus Christ on the basis of 
what they had seen and heard. They could in some degree 
carry on Christ’s work of healing, for that was to be a 
part of their mission. 

The stewardship of healing is given as the third reason 
for the selection of the Twelve. The truth of their procla- 
mation is established by the authority conferred upon them 
to cast out demons. ‘The kingdom of God shall be ushered 
in by the casting out of demons, which is regarded as the 
representative miracle of the new era. With the approach 
of Israel’s Messiah the kingdom of darkness will lose its 
power. This expulsive power of Christ’s gospel, which 
was a part of the preaching, was to show the superiority 
of the new kingdom over the forces of evil. It was 
to address itself to the spiritual and physical needs of 
the afflicted and oppressed. This is the gospel that Jesus 
preached, and those signs of its power which have gone 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 309 


with it hitherto, shall also accompany the preaching of 
the apostles. 

This solemn choosing of the twelve apostles is followed 
by a list of their names in Mark 3: 16-19 and Luke 6: 14- 
16. There is a similar list in Matthew 10: 2-4 and Acts 
1:13. The order of the names varies somewhat in these 
four catalogues. Then, too, there are some variations in 
the designations which are employed. The four lists, how- 
ever, contain practically the same names, except in Acts 
1:13, where the name of Judas Iscariot is omitted, 
Matthias being elected in his stead. It is interesting to 
note that Matthew classifies the apostles in pairs, the 
Twelve being named in the following order: Peter and 
Andrew ; James and John, the sons of Zebedee; Philip and 
Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew; James, son of 
Alpheus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas 
Iscariot. From Mark 6:7 we infer that the apostles were 
thus joined when Jesus sent them out two by two on their 
first missionary journey. But a comparison of all four 
lists soon reveals the fact that the names are arranged in 
three groups of four persons each and that the same apos- 
tles, Peter, Philip and James son of Alpheus, stand first in 
each group. The members of the first group, particularly 
Peter, James and John, were men of marked ability, to 
judge from the gospel narrative. In Matthew and Luke 
the two pairs of brothers are kept together, whereas in 
Mark, Andrew is mentioned after the sons of Zebedee, 
because of the insertion of the descriptive names given to 
the latter by Jesus. We have already made their ac- 
quaintance in connection with the call of the four fisher- 
men, previously described. Peter as the natural born 
leader of the apostolic group always appears at the head of 
the Twelve. His Hebrew name Simon or Simeon sug- 
gests that God, as in the case of Leah’s son Simeon, “ had 
heard” the prayer of his mother for a son, The word 


810 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ée 


Peter is Greek and corresponds to Aramaic Cephas, “a 
stone” or “rock.” Though he was a man of rock-like 
certitude, when it came to the point of expressing his faith 
in the Messiahship of Jesus, his impetuosity sometimes got 
him into trouble. He was a ready spokesman, because he 
was quick to see things and to put into words his thoughts, 
emotions and convictions. 

His brother Andrew is a quiet, cautious, steady man. 
He is not subject to the fluctuating moods of his impulsive 
but distinguished brother. His Greek name implies that 
he was a “manly” man. If he cannot be a leader in the 
apostolic group, he will do what he can to further the in- 
terests of the Master’s kingdom. We cannot help but 
admire him, because he is always looking up somebody to 
bring to Jesus. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are 
closely associated, as we have seen, with Simon Peter and 
Andrew his brother. The “sons of thunder” are warm- 
blooded, hot-tempered youths. They have strong likes and 
dislikes ; they are loyal friends and ardent in their attach- 
ments but quick to resent a slight either to themselves or to 
the object of their love and devotion. They are men of 
strong character, ardent in their love but violent in their 
antagonisms. ‘The burning enthusiasm and fiery zeal of 
their earlier days is more like the thunder-peals and fiery 
bolts of an Elijah than the stateliness and calm of John 
the “ beloved ” disciple. In the lists of the apostles, James, 
which is the same as Jacob, a supplanter, is always men- 
tioned before John. Probably James was older than his 
brother, and hence the former takes precedence over the 
latter. But the time came when John’s qualities of leader- 
ship were second only to those of Peter and, indeed, it will 
be no exaggeration to say that he stood first in the Master’s 
affections. This kind of priority does not depend upon the 
accident of birth but upon a spiritual relationship, growing 
out of unbounded confidence and faith in a loving Christ. 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 311 


The first member of the second group is Philip. He is 
the fifth believer and hails from Bethsaida. His Greek 
name, together with that of Andrew, incidentally proves 
that some Greek at least was spoken in Galilee by the side 
of Aramaic. Philip signifies “a lover of horses.” He is 
a practical man who likes to count up the cost of things. 
But he is interested in more than mere figures and statis- 
tics, as may be seen from John 1:44; 6:5; 12: 21-22 and 
14:8. It might be remarked in passing that the Greeks 
who wanted to interview Jesus, first approach Philip and 
Andrew, inferentially because the disciples with their 
Greek names would establish a better point of contact 
between Jesus and the Greeks than any of the other dis- 
ciples. Like Andrew, Philip is a quiet, practical worker, 
whose missionary impulse leads him to seek out Nathanael, 
also called Bartholomew, with whom he is associated in all 
the lists except the fourth. In Acts 1:13 the name of 
Thomas is inserted between Philip and Bartholomew. 
But in the other three lists Thomas and Matthew are men- 
tioned together. Matthew is mentioned before Thomas in 
both Mark and Luke, but modesty prompts Matthew in his 
summary to give the precedence to Thomas. Since 
Matthew the publican is already a familiar figure, we pass 
on to Thomas or Didymus, the “ Twin.” But whose twin 
brother was he? Some have supposed that he was a twin 
brother of Matthew. ‘The latter, as we know, was a man 
of practical affairs, full of energy, decision and strength of 
faith. This, in addition to the claims of blood, may have 
led Jesus to pair him off with doubting Thomas, who could 
not rise to the height of faith without the stilts of physical 
demonstration. And yet for all that we rather like him, 
because he was an honest doubter who sought the truth 
and found it. To a scientific age, like ours, he is an inter- 
esting character. He certainly has his good points, other- 
wise Jesus would not have been so patient with him. In 


812 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


John 14:5 he asks, “ Lord, we know not whither Thou 
goest, and how can we know the way?” ‘This question 
drew from our Lord the memorable answer, ‘I am the 
way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the 
Father but by Me.” While he is slow to believe and even 
unwilling at times to believe good news without the most 
convincing proof of its truth, he is nevertheless open to 
conviction, and when once convinced of the unreasonable- 
ness of his doubts, he breaks forth into one of the noblest 
and grandest confessions in the Gospels (John 20:28). 
And how courageous he is in the presence of danger! 
When he heard that Jesus intended to go to Bethany in 
spite of His foes, he said to his fellow disciples, “ Let us 
go also, that we may die with Him!” (John 11:16). He 
was loyal at heart and ready, if necessary, to die with 
His Lord. 

James, son of Alphzeus, heads the third group, but we 
know little more concerning him, except that there is a 
slight possibility, as some think, of his being Matthew’s 
brother, on the ground that he, too, is a son of Alpheus. 
But the identification of this Alphzeus with the father of 
Matthew is questioned by others, who believe that if 
Matthew and the James under consideration were brothers 
it would be so indicated in the lists. Everyone will admit, 
however, that this is far from conclusive, as the argument 
from silence proves nothing. All that can be said is that 
the identification of the two names must remain an open 
question in the face of such scant evidence. But the ques- 
tion of possible relationship between the two men is of 
practical interest. However, we cannot pursue the ques- 
tion any further, except to say that according to some 
early texts the occupation of the first member of the third 
group was identical with that of Matthew, which is of in- 
terest in showing that Levi was not the only tax-gatherer 
among the apostles. The name of his father distinguishes 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 313 


him from James the son of Zebedee. There, was also a 
second Simon among the Twelve, who is known as the 
Zealot to distinguish him from his celebrated namesake. 
He belonged to the party of the Zealots who followed 
Judas the Galilean or the Gaulonite, in his opposition to 
the Roman domination. The members of this party 
acknowledged no king but Jehovah. They were animated 
with peculiar zeal for the recovery of Jewish freedom, and 
punished without trial or “lynched” every law-breaker 
coming under their notice, finding precedent and sanction 
in the case of Phinehas (Num. 25:7). They bitterly op- 
posed the Romans and sought for an opportunity to estab- 
lish by force the kingdom of God. Their rigid adherence 
to the Mosaic law and to the national institutions brought 
them into open conflict with the Romans at the time of the 
census referred to in Luke 2 (See also Acts 5:37). Jo- 
sephus, in his Antiquities (XVIII, 1, 1) informs us that 
the Romans had some difficulty in crushing the uprising. 
At a later date the smouldering flame of Hebrew national- 
ism blazed forth in a perfect frenzy of fanaticism which 
brought about the final catastrophe of Israel. In this 
struggle the Zealots played a terrible part. Simon the 
Zealot, however, if he was still alive, could hardly have. 
been in sympathy with the fanatical and reckless proceed- 
ings of an unavailing patriotism. The ex-Zealot no longer 
believed in exalting the carnal weapons of barbarous war- 
fare as a solution for the ills of life. Judas of Galilee had 
wielded the sword and perished with the sword. The cur- 
rent political philosophy had failed. Jesus of Nazareth, 
the new Leader, soon made it apparent that He had come 
to establish a spiritual and, therefore, universal kingdom, 
depending solely upon the exercise of spiritual weapons, 
such as the sword of the Spirit or the two-edged sword of 
God’s all-conquering Word. It gradually dawned upon 
Simon that while the ordinary weapons of warfare might 


314. THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


achieve a physical victory, they can never take the citadel 
within the soul of man, the man within being conquered 
not by brute force but by the omnipotent force of gospel 
truth as exemplified in a life of sacrificial service out of 
love to God and man. 

The disciple next mentioned is Judas, son of James, 
otherwise known as Lebbeus and Thaddeus. The last 
two names seemingly indicate that he was a big-hearted, 
whole-souled man. This Judas is “ Judas the pious” in 
contradistinction to the infamous betrayer, who seems to 
be the only disciple who was not a Galilean. The last 
member of the apostolic group is said to hail from Kir- 
yoth. As there was a town of that name in Judah, he may 
have been a Judzan. But this is not altogether certain, as 
there was also a town of that name in Moab. Some think 
that Kiryoth is to be identified with Kore in the Jordan 
Valley, not far from Jericho. If this is correct the treas- 
urer and business manager of the Twelve may have come 
under the prophetic influence of John the Baptist. If he 
was a Judean he may have become one of Christ’s fol- 
lowers at the time of His visit to the Jordan, alluded to 
in John 3:22. Why Jesus should have chosen the “ Man 
of Kiryoth” remains a mysterious and baffling subject to 
many Christians. But it is well to remember that Jesus, as 
we have said before, must have recognized in him, at the 
time of his selection, as in the case of the Eleven, an apos- 
tle in the making. We may rest assured that the shadow 
of coming treachery had not as yet obscured his path. 
Even if the germ of a ruinous avarice was already present 
when he was chosen, it must not be overlooked that there 
was also present the germ of faith which, under proper 
conditions, might have served as a counteracting influence 
over the former. His weakness, whatever it was, might 
have been overcome by the upward pull of a dynamic, per- 
sonal faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, however, his 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 815 


doubts and sordid desires predominated over his shrinking 
and impotent faith. But the evil course of development 
might have been arrested, all along the line, as in the case 
of Peter, by repentance, that is to say, by a change of mind 
and heart with respect to religious values or the realities of 
life. In either case the seed sown by the Master was the 
same, but the tares which Judas Iscariot harboured in his 
heart grew up and choked the good seed. The fruits of 
faith will not grow in such soil. Having followed the line 
of least resistance all along, the faithless traitor “ went out 
and hanged himself,” preferring the way of cowardly 
self-destruction to the penitential garb of a repenting 
sinner, 

The nomination of the Twelve is followed by a period 
of preparation and training in the school of Jesus. How 
much time elapsed between the choice of the apostles and 
their first commission to preach we do not know. It is 
quite certain, however, that the first apostolic tour in Gali- 
lee could not have been in immediate prospect when they 
were chosen, as may be seen from the twofold purpose of 
their appointment, alluded to in Mark 3:14. According 
to Mark 6:7 this trial mission of the Twelve came later. 
The intervening chapters show how the chosen apostles 
were trained for active service. But Mark is not the only 
Evangelist to distinguish between the call to service and 
the actual mission of the Twelve. That Luke makes a 
similar distinction is clear from what is recorded between 
the formal appointment of the Twelve and their experi- 
mental tour in Galilee (6: 20-chap. 9). In Luke 6:13 we 
have the selection of the apostles before the Sermon on the 
Mount, and it is significant to note that various incidents 
are recorded in chapters 7 and 8 before we come to the 
trial mission in Galilee, referred to in chapter 9. All this 
goes to show that Jesus attached great importance to the 
training of His co-workers and future successors. We 


816 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ought carefully to observe the gradual process by which 
our Lord prepared them to do a work of preaching and 
healing similar to His own. John 1: 35-51 relates, for 
example, how John’s disciples had met the Nazarene. 
Matthew 4: 18-22 shows how this acquaintance ripened 
into discipleship. Soon thereafter Matthew is called upon 
to leave his place of employment and join the ranks of 
those who were to become fishers of men. Then followed 
the selection of the twelve representatives of a new Israel, 
who were to be trained for special duties. They are now 
enrolled in the school of Christ, so to speak, with a view 
to their being sent forth, after a period of constant fel- 
lowship with the Master, to their own people. By training 
the disciples for the duties of apostleship, He could in a 
measure multiply Himself and reach those perishing 
throngs which could be seen everywhere by the discerning 
and penetrating eye of the great Lover of men’s souls. 
The mission of the Twelve, spoken of in Matthew 9: 35- 
11, 1; Mark 6: 7-13; and Luke 9: 1-6 is occasioned by a 
missionary tour made by Jesus through Galilee, in which 
He is deeply impressed by the greatness of the spiritual 
need and the utter lack of competent religious leaders. In 
this Galilean circuit of teaching, preaching and healing, 
He found a thirst for “the living waters,” but no teachers 
endowed with the gift of interpretation. The fountains 
of compassion welled up in that vast heart as He looked 
out upon the famishing multitudes, “because they were 
distressed and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd.” 
This telling simile, borrowed from shepherd-life, recalls to 
our mind the passage in I Kings 22: 17, where the prophet 
says to Ahab, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as 
sheep that have no shepherd.” The reference is to a lack 
of leadership in Israel at this time; the flock is scattered 
because there is no shepherd to guide the sheep. At an 
earlier period Joshua is appointed to succeed Moses “ that 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 317 


the congregation of Jehovah be not as sheep having no 
shepherd ” (Num. 27:17). 

Jehovah Himself is spoken of in the Old Testament as 
the Shepherd of His people (Ps. 80:1; 100: 3), the best- 
known examples being found in Isaiah 40:11 and in the 
Shepherd-Psalm of Israel (23). The figure is frequently 
applied to the prophets and kings of Israel, who are to 
guide the destinies of the nation. They are the under- 
shepherds of Jehovah charged with the solemn responsi- 
bility of shepherding the flock committed to their care. 
But the spirit of the hireling wrought great havoc at times 
in the sheepfold. Ezekiel 34 complains that the shep- 
herds of Israel were feeding themselves and not the flock. 
The latter half of the chapter points to a future Shepherd 
of the house of David, who shall gather the scattered sheep 
and feed them. In the eyes of Jesus, the good Shepherd, 
the common people were like shepherdless sheep driven on 
by thirst and hunger in search of water-brooks and green 
pastures but, losing their way in the trackless desert, they 
finally sink down in utter exhaustion, some scattered here 
and there; others in their bruised condition staggering on 
a little while longer until they, too, lie prostrate on the 
ground. Their pitiful state is due to the absence of true 
shepherds. Rapacious hirelings have done violence to 
God’s flock. They are the thieves and robbers, adverted 
to in John 10. Not content with feeding themselves at the 
expense of a hungry flock, they have lacerated and torn 
the sheep, robbing them of their fleece and leaving them 
half dead under the crushing load of burdens imposed on 
them by the under-shepherds of Jehovah. Of course, 
there was the semblance of food, such as the dry husks of 
a barren legalism. But the legal verbosity of hair-splitting 
lawyers could not satisfy the instinctive craving of the 
people for wholesome food. Scribes and Pharisees, men 
trained in the law and appointed to feed the flock in every 


818 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


synagogue of the land, vainly sought to meet this cry for 
bread by handing out to the famishing multitudes nothing 
but husks and stones and other substitutes. The official 
teachers of the day could not teach; they rarely, if ever, 
got on the inside of religion. ‘These blind leaders of the 
blind seemed to have overlooked the fact that religion 
must get under the surface and penetrate to the very core 
of a man’s being before there can be any genuine religious 
and ethical reactions in every-day life. A faith that works 
by love to God and man means infinitely more to religion 
and conduct than the external standards of Pharisaic legal- 
ism and traditionalism. 

Jesus in His tour of the towns and synagogues of Gali- 
lee, notes with sadness the spiritual destitution of the peo- 
ple. He found the weary multitudes groping after the 
truth in the dark mazes of an endless chain of bewildering 
laws. Human traditions had taken the place of the Word 
of God. Inasmuch as there are no true pastors in the 
land, the good Shepherd must seek out the scattered sheep 
and lead them to the wells of salvation, where they may 
drink and live. And how eagerly they responded to the 
Shepherd’s voice! By some inner intuition they immedi- 
ately felt that He would lead them, not to the deceitful 
oasis of another mirage, but to the living waters of His 
quickening Word. In Him they found both meat and 
drink indeed. Attracted by His healing Word, the scat- 
tered sheep came forth from the towns and hamlets of 
Galilee and Jesus fed and healed them. Instead of a scat- 
tered flock of bleating and lost sheep, spread over the hill- 
sides and waste places of the earth, we now see teeming 
multitudes swarming about the Shepherd of their souls. 
The success of their missionary tour suggests to the mind 
of Jesus, as He gazes at the great moving mass of human- 
ity surging wave-like back and forth, waving fields of 
golden grain, such as one might frequently see at Gennesa- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 319 


ret or on the plains of Jezreel. The hungry multitudes 
resembled a harvest-field ready for the reapers. What a 
spiritual harvest might be reaped if only the present num- 
ber of labourers could be materially augmented. “ Then 
He saith unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plente- 
ous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the 
Lord (that is to say, the Owner) of the harvest, that He 
may send forth labourers into His harvest.” The harvest 
requires, not one, but many labourers. The work of Jesus 
and that of His predecessor, John the Baptist, is not suf- 
ficient. As a preparation for active service, they are bid- 
den to pray the Lord of the harvest, to whom this harvest 
of souls belongs, that He may “thrust forth” more la- 
bourers into His harvest. While God must do the actual 
sending in answer to earnest and persistent prayer, pros- 
pective workers must experience something of the reflex- 
ive influence of prayer, otherwise the call of God for more 
labourers will remain unheeded. 

Prayer works in two ways. On the one hand, it prompts 
God to direct action in behalf of His children; and on the 
other, it prepares the man, who prays, for the call when it 
comes. The Lord of the harvest does not need to be 
stirred up to benevolent activity. He is always ready, 
when the reapers are ready. As it is His will that the 
harvest should be reaped through human agency, the reap- 
ers that are needed must give prayerful consideration to 
‘the King’s business, so that they can be “thrust forth ” 
into their respective fields of labour by the energy of a 
divine mission and call. The call to prayer must always 
precede the call to service, not that the Owner of all the 
earth needs to be specially reminded of the sad condition 
of any portion of His vast domains, but because He can 
use only such labourers as are in sympathy with His plans. 
It is certainly significant, to say the least, that in the case 
of the disciples the call to prayer is followed by their first 


320 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


evangelistic attempt in Galilee. They could hardly have 
been sent before. The great spiritual need, manifest on 
every hand, was not sufficient to convert them into mis- 
sionaries. The sight of a shepherdless multitude filled the 
Master’s heart with infinite pity and compassion. But the 
disciples must also be filled with a similar passion for 
souls. Accordingly, Jesus set them thinking and praying 
about the spiritual condition of the people of their native 
province, urging them to observe the greatness of the spi- 
ritual harvest and the small number of labourers ; they are 
to pray that the lack may be speedily supplied. Their 
heartfelt prayer in behalf of Galilee is answered by the call 
of the Master Himself, commissioning them to preach and 
empowering them to cast out demons and heal the sick as 
He Himself had done. 

The disciples are now, for the first time, to become apos- 
tles, sent forth as heralds to proclaim the near approach of 
God’s kingdom and to emphasize the necessity of repen- 
tance as a preparation for its advent. Their message, as 
in the case of the Baptist and of Jesus, is summed up in 
the words, “ Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand.” ‘This being their first attempt at evangelism, the 
preaching is to be brief and simple. For the sake of com- 
panionship and mutual co-operation the Lord sent them 
out two by two, which recalls their distribution into pairs 
in the lists of the apostles (Matt. 10: 2-4; Luke 6: 13-15). 
Though the mission was in a sense an educational experi- 
ment for the disciples’ own benefit, they are not to apolo- 
gize to the villagers of Galilee, to whom they are sent, for 
their lack of experience in preaching. It will be of some 
comfort to them to know that they have been authorized to 
preach and that they may point to extraordinary powers of 
healing as credentials of their mission and as proofs of the 
coming of the kingdom. For the present, the field of their 
missionary endeavours is restricted to their own country- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 321 


men. “ These twelve Jesus sent forth and charged them 
saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles,” such as the 
roads leading to the Greek colonies in the vicinity known 
as the Decapolis, “and into any city of the Samaritans 
enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel.” The spiritual destitution of a shepherdless and 
scattered people lay heavy on Christ’s heart. In keeping 
with the instinct of a true shepherd, Jesus regards the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel as the first objects of His lov- 
ing care. If the twelve apostles are to be looked upon as 
the spiritual representatives of the twelve tribes, they must 
address themselves to the task immediately before them, so 
that a new Israel may take the place of the old. The dis- 
ciples are given to understand that their first obligation is 
to their own people, to the twelve tribes of Israel. The 
spell of the spiritual scene, witnessed by Jesus in His 
recent Galilean circuit of preaching and healing, still lin- 
gers in His soul. The children of Israel were like a shep- 
herdless flock of scattered sheep. Without faith in the 
Messiah they are lost. The disciples must supplement His 
labours without delay. And they will have a measure of 
success, too. Jesus had found that the multitudes in Gali- 
lee were ready enough to welcome the glad tidings of sal- 
vation. And besides, the preference must be given to the 
Jews, who had the first claim to the gospel. Opportunity 
must be given them to hear the Shepherd’s voice before 
there can be any thought of evangelizing the large Gentile 
population in Galilee. 

By availing themselves of this home mission oppor- 
tunity, amid conditions with which they were thoroughly 
familiar, the apprentice missionaries would gain their first 
experience in soul-winning, thus enabling them at a later 
date to bring in the other sheep, spoken of in John 10:16, 
which are not of the fold of Israel. The Samaritans and 
Gentiles were not to be permanently excluded. Perhaps 


822 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the disciples had some idea of the wider extension of the 
gospel, otherwise it would be difficult to account, in the 
present instance, for the restriction of their missionary 
enterprise to their own Galilean countrymen. But they 
are hardly competent as yet to deal in a Christ-like spirit, 
with the religious fanaticism of the Samaritans or to 
preach with profit to their pagan neighbours. They are 
best equipped to preach to Jews, and hence the scene of 
their evangelic labours is laid in their own native prov- | 
ince. They are but beginners who must be satisfied to do 
the work of apprentices, dispersing in pairs throughout 
the villages and trusting to the hospitality of those to 
whom they ministered. They are to go just as they are. 
lf they happen to have a staff in their hand and sandals 
on their feet, and a coat on their back, well and good. 
Let them go simply clad and not make any special pro- 
visions for the journey, depending upon the free, open 
hospitality of the East for the satisfaction of their meagre 
wants. 

For this is no ordinary or protracted journey; if it 
were they might do well to put sufficient money in their 
folded girdles for any emergency that might arise. They 
go as heralds of the King of kings, and their wants will 
be duly supplied in accordance with the proverb that “ the 
labourer is worthy of his hire.” Freedom from care for 
the purpose of complete concentration on their mission is 
the aim. ‘They are to go at once, unencumbered with 
cares about food or raiment. All these things will be 
added unto them, if they will but seek first the kingdom of 
God and all that pertains to the welfare of immortal souls. 
In their case, further preparations in the way of outward 
equipment must not be thought of for a moment, as super- 
fluous baggage would only be a great hindrance to the 
speedy fulfilment of their mission. The King’s business 
demands haste, detachment and full consecration. His 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 823 


fleet-footed heralds have an important message to deliver. 
The time is short, they must hasten on their way and not 
waste time with elaborate wayside salutations. In general, 
however, they are to observe, on their arrival in a given 
village, the usual courtesies, greeting in the accustomed 
manner the people with whom they expected to stay while 
preaching in the vicinity. Their commission includes vari- 
ous instructions for the fulfilment of their mission. They 
shall have respect to the spiritual and temporal wants of 
their countrymen. For this purpose there has been com- 
mitted to them the stewardship of preaching and healing. 
What they have received from the Master they are to im- 
part to others on the principle, “ Freely ye have received, 
freely give.” These words, strictly speaking, apply to the 
power of healing and of exorcism, conferred upon them 
by Christ, not in return for a monetary consideration, but 
as a gratuitous gift. The exercise of such power must be 
kept free from every taint of covetousness. The apostles 
are not to come down to the level of the Jewish exorcists 
and pagan magicians, who put everything on a commercial 
basis. They are not commercial travellers offering their 
spiritual wares to the highest bidder. The gift of healing 
is not to be regarded as a means of gain, but a sacred trust. 
To accept support from those to whom they ministered is 
allowable, but to take payment for healing the sick is to 
commercialize religion and bring it into disrepute. 

The above principle has a still wider extension. It ap- 
plies not only to the gift of healing and to material things ; 
it extends to every form of spiritual endowment. Thank 
God, there are some things in this greedy world of ours, 
which cannot be sold and bought. The priceless treasures 
of the gospel are for all. To make a trade of religion is to 
degrade it. What the disciples have received as a free 
gift, they are to impart to others gratuitously, that is, with- 
out money and without price. Spiritual gifts cannot be 


324 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


evaluated in terms of dollars and cents. They are above 
money and above every price. But the principle, enunci- 
ated by Jesus, has a meaning for every Christian, whether 
lay or clerical. Merely to imbibe spiritual refreshment 
without some form of Christian activity, leads to spiritual 
dyspepsia. Spiritual inertia and apathy leads to the loss 
of God’s gifts, for what we endeavour to keep for our- 
selves we lose, and what we give to others we keep and 
retain. In all our giving, whether of ourselves or of our 
possessions, we should be actuated by the same disinter- 
ested benevolence which has made us the recipients of the 
grace of God, freely communicated to us. 

In His circuit of preaching and healing in the larger 
cities and towns of Galilee, Jesus is impressed by the spir- 
itual destitution of the people. The heart of the good 
Shepherd yearns for His shepherdless and scattered flock. 
Ere many weeks elapse His loving quest is rewarded by 
the presence of an eager and expectant multitude, suggest- 
ing to the mind of Jesus a potential harvest of human 
souls. But such a harvest requires many labourers. The 
vastness of the work to be accomplished rendered it im- 
possible for our Lord to visit the smaller villages and ham- 
lets of Galilee. Luke 9:6 indicates that this is to be the 
task of the twelve home missionaries sent out by Christ to 
supplement His efforts in that province. But the ever- 
widening vision of harvests to be reaped elsewhere called 
for additional helpers. According to Luke 10: 1-20 the 
trial mission of the Twelve in Galilee was succeeded by 
the mission of the Seventy. The mission of the latter 
probably belongs to the Perzean period of Christ’s ministry. 
Growing opposition on the part of the ecclesiastical au- 
thorities and the threatening attitude of the tetrarch of 
Galilee, who was seeking His life, made it necessary for 
Jesus to concentrate His attention upon a portion of the 
east-Jordan country. To bring His ministry to a close 








THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 325 


before the great truths of the gospel could be established 
in men’s hearts would have retarded the work of the king- 
dom. Jesus was not afraid to die; but He realized that it 
was necessary, for the cause to which He had dedicated 
His life, that He should continue to live a little while 
longer, so that others might be trained to carry on the 
work after His enemies had done their worst. 

It was at this time that He summoned seventy of His 
devoted followers, besides the Twelve, and sent them on 
ahead to the places He intended to visit. The Seventy- 
two, mentioned in some ancient manuscripts, may have 
been the original number of those sent out as forerunners 
of our Lord. This multiplication of the official repre- 
sentatives of the twelve tribes obviously points to the 
primary purpose of their mission; like the twelve apostles, 
they are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. A 
more extensive gospel appeal is to be made. Included in 
the field of operations is Perzea and possibly also a part of 
Judea. There is a noticeable difference between the mis- 
sion of the Twelve and that of the Seventy, or of the 
Seventy-two. The former were sent to the villages of 
Galilee, preaching in places which the great Teacher had 
been unable to reach, but never going beyond the limits of 
the chosen race, whereas the latter were sent “ into every 
city and place whither He Himself was about to come.” 
The scene of their labours is laid in the half-Gentile dis- 
tricts on the east side of Jordan and, as Jesus actually 
visited the districts of Gadara and of the Decapolis, not 
to speak of the borderland of Tyre and Sidon over in the 
extreme northwest, it would seem that the day is not far 
off when the “ other sheep,” spoken of in another connec- 
tion, would be gathered in the fold of one and the same 
Shepherd. But that day had not come as yet. For the 
present the Seventy are sent, not to the Gentiles, but to 
their own countrymen across the Jordan. They go forth 


3826 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in pairs, thirty-five or thirty-six pairs in all, to prepare His 
way by healing the sick and preaching the gospel. 

Naturally each pair of heralds would proceed to some 
definite town or village in anticipation of the Master’s 
approaching visit. The instructions given them for the 
journey are almost identically the same as those of the 
Galilean mission. It is for this reason that some have 
supposed that the mission of the Seventy is only another 
version of the mission of the Twelve. There is, however, 
no good reason for doubting the accuracy of Luke’s ac- 
count regarding this second mission toward the close of 
Christ’s public ministry. Two such missions would be 
sure to have much in common. In each case similar con- 
ditions would have to be met and, therefore, the work 
would have to be done under similar, if not the same, in- 
structions. That the Master should have repeated Him- 
self on two similar occasions is what one might expect 
under the circumstances. With prophetic insight, Jesus 
foresees on both occasions, in view of what has already 
happened to John the Baptist, an element of danger to the 
missionaries themselves: the leaders of the nation will re- 
gard their mission with disfavour. But they are to meet 
such opposition as well as popular prejudice in the spirit of 
forbearance and Christian fortitude, knowing that the fear 
of God is the only effective weapon of overcoming the fear 
of men. They are to go with their eyes wide open and not 
become discouraged, if their mission should not prove to 
be an unqualified success. Let them be found faithful ia 
the performance of present duty, no matter what may be 
the outcome, either to themselves or to those to whom they 
have been sent. The salvation of imperishable souls is at 
stake. The faithful acceptance of the missionaries’ proc- 
lamation with respect to the kingdom of God will bring 
salvation, but woe to any individual or town that refuses 
to receive them and their message! 





| 
| 
. 
! 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 327 


The possible rejection of His messengers by those to 
whom they were sent reminds Jesus of His own experience 
in such towns as Chorazin, Bethsaida and more particu- 
larly in Capernaum, where many of His mightiest deeds 
had been done, Mighty works bore adequate testimony to 
the Messianic claims of Jesus, but the dull-souled populace 
along the northern end of the Sea of Galilee had no dis- 
cerning ear for these unusual calls to the kingdom. They 
had enjoyed exceptional privileges, they had been exalted 
above others only to reject the Christ. It will be more 
tolerable, in the day of judgment, for the worldly-minded 
Pheenicians at Tyre and Sidon, as well as for the prover- 
bially wicked Sodomites, than for these highly favoured 
but callous urbanites. All this is said for the encourage- 
ment of the Seventy, who need not be surprised, if they 
should meet with similar experiences while on their mis- 
sion. However, it will be of some comfort to them to 
know that they are going in the Master’s name. 

When the Seventy returned from their mission and re- 
ported their great success, Jesus hailed it as another indi- 
cation of the downfall of Satan’s kingdom. The over- 
throw of that kingdom was officially begun a year or two 
before, when the Messiah prevailed over the tempter, defi- 
nitely breaking his power and at the same time demon- 
strating the superiority of spiritual and moral forces over 
the powers of evil. The fact that the tempter left Jesus 
for a time only to renew the struggle at a more convenient 
season clearly indicates that the victory, which has been 
won, must be progressively realized. In the course of His 
public ministry Jesus remains victorious over every temp- 
tation, never for a moment losing His initial advantage. 
The tempter’s power was definitely broken and his king- 
dom was on the wane. The casting out of demons by the 
Messiah, for example, resulted in the advancement of His 
kingdom and in the consequent break-up and disintegration 


828 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


of the rule of evil. But this victory over the forces of evil 
was not achieved by an ordinary individual, but by an ideal 
representative personality, called the Son of man or the 
second Adam, whose victory over sin is of fundamental 
importance to the whole human race, and more particu- 
larly to the immediate followers of Jesus. What Jesus 
had done, His disciples are empowered to do. “ The Sev- 
enty,” we read, “returned again with joy saying, Lord, 
even the demons are subject unto us in Thy name.” But 
the Master sounds a timely warning against what might 
eventually issue into vain boasting and spiritual pride over 
the possession of God-given powers. To glory in charis- 
matic gifts having to do almost exclusively with the heal- 
ing of the body and mind, is to put a higher premium upon 
bodily cures than upon the teaching and preaching func- 
tion of the missionary. Why emphasize that which is 
merely incidental and collateral in religion to the detri- 
ment of that which is primary and fundamental? Preach- 
ing and healing go together. Bodily cures without spiri- 
tual restoration or the cure of souls would have little or 
no spiritual value. 

While it may be safely assumed that the disciples com- 
bined with their preaching the power of healing and of 
exorcism, Jesus evidently finds it necessary to put them on 
their guard against the possibility of an undue emphasis 
upon the charismatic gift of healing and of exorcism. He 
therefore utters a gentle rebuke, thereby checking by a 
word of warning and a timely retreat into solitude, their 
seemingly innocent elation over recent successes attending 
the use of Christ’s name in conjunction with the preaching 
mission in Pereea. They have yet to learn that successful 
exorcisms are no guarantee of eternal salvation. “ Never- 
theless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto 
you; but rather rejoice that your names are written in 
heaven.” ‘Though the disciples may reasonably rejoice at 





THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 329 


the success of their exorcisms, there is far greater cause 
for rejoicing, namely, that their names have been enrolled 
in the heavenly register of God’s elect. Far more indis- 
pensable than all charismatic gifts is the grace of God, by 
which they are saved. Something else is needed besides 
the power of driving out demons to insure individual sal- 
vation. The one exercising such power is not immune to 
temptation any more than the person from whom the evil 
power has been ejected. If, in the case of the latter, the 
vacuum, which has been created by the expulsive power of 
Christ’s name, must be filled with the inner dynamic of an 
abiding faith in the Son of God, so also must the person 
exercising a charismatic gift have a saving faith in Jesus 
Christ before there can be any assurance of eternal salva- 
tion. There is no saving merit in being permitted to dis- 
pense a charismatic gift. Moral and spiritual power is 
greater, for without it bodily healing or any other humani- 
tarian effort loses its savour. In the Sermon on the Mount 
Jesus declares, “ Many will say unto Me on that day, 
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Thy name, and by 
Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many 
wonderful works?” Judas had shared the gift along with 
the Twelve on their Galilean mission. He, too, had cast 
out demons without being able to cast out from his own 
heart the growing monster of selfishness and earthly am- 
bition. The demon of selfishness finally leaped upon him 
and overpowered him, driving out from one enjoying 
great intimacy with Christ, every noble impulse. Judas 
proved faithless in the end, because he resisted the spiri- 
tual influences of a loving and gracious Saviour. In the 
absence of such a corrective, his faith in Christ soon 
reached the vanishing point, and he became an easy prey 
to the sin, which had been lurking in his heart. | 
Such were the men whom Jesus called and trained for 
missionary service. Christ’s purpose in training them was 


830 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


not so much that they themselves might be saved but that 
they might go forth and preach the glad tidings of salva- 
tion to others. The ultimate aim and purpose for which 
they were set apart was that they might share in the glori- 
ous mission which Jesus had taken for the great work of 
His life. The same missionary spirit which characterized 
the life of the Master is to be the driving dynamic of their 
future labours. The time came when the disciples were 
called “apostles,” or ‘“ missionaries.” This title was to 
serve as a constant reminder of the missionary character 
of their Christian discipleship ; they had been “ sent forth ” 
as heralds of the new faith with a definite message from 
Christ. The title itself incidentally points to the Christian 
religion as a great missionary enterprise. Christianity is 
missionary to the core. The missionary impulse cannot be 
separated from a vital Christianity, and every genuine dis- 
ciple is at heart a missionary. 

How true this is of the early disciples. Under the in- 
spiration of his first interview with Jesus, Andrew, for 
example, immediately goes in quest of his own brother, 
because he wants him to share the joy of his momentous 
discovery. He had made the acquaintance of the first 
great Missionary, and that was enough to convert him into 
the first home missionary, with whom in a sense the Chris- 
tian Church begins. From what we know of him in the 
Bible, his missionary zeal never abated for one moment; 
he is always eager to bring somebody to Jesus. In this 
connection, however, we desire to call special attention to 
the fact that the missionary method is acquired in a mea- 
sure long before the trial mission of the Twelve and the 
Day of Pentecost. To see Jesus and become better ac- 
quainted with Him is an experience which, in the very 
nature of the case, must be shared with others. It is the 
most natural thing in the world for John, imitating An- 
drew’s example, to go in search of his brother James and 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 331 


bring him to the Nazarene. There was no special design 
about it, so far as either Andrew or John were concerned. 
For Andrew and John to bring their respective brothers to 
Jesus was an altogether spontaneous act, inherent in the 
religion of the great Master-Missionary. There was some- 
thing to be enthusiastic about, and besides, they had caught 
the glorious contagion of a missionary Personality, whose 
sole aim it was to propagate the gospel of a universal king- 
dom beginning, as we know, at Jerusalem and extending 
in due time unto the uttermost parts of the earth, After 
Simon Peter-and James had made the acquaintance of 
Jesus through the instrumentality of their brothers, Jesus 
found Philip and said unto him, “ Follow Me.” This was 
a practical demonstration of the missionary method of 
which we are speaking. From the narrative itself we 
gather that there was nothing very complicated about it; 
indeed, we are startled by its simplicity. Jesus, we are 
told, finds Philip, speaks to him, and Philip becomes a 
follower of the Prophet of Nazareth. 

While this may be a summary statement on the part of 
the fourth Evangelist (1:43), Philip at any rate was not 
slow in catching the spirit of it. It was not long before he 
began to imitate Christ’s method by going after his friend 
Nathanael and saying to him, “ We have found Him of 
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus 
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” He put into practice 
what he had learned from the Master, and perhaps also 
from Andrew and John, as may be seen from the success 
of his first evangelistic effort and his skill in dealing with 
Nathanael. No sooner does a man come under Christ’s in- 
fluence and become a genuine follower of His than he feels 
at once an earnest desire to propagate the gospel and bring 
others to Christ. In the case of Matthew the missionary 
impulse leaps into consciousness as soon as the former tax- 
collector comes into closer contact with the inspiring per- 


832 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


sonality of Jesus. His first missionary effort grew out of 
a desire to bring his old friends and Jesus together, hoping 
that they might take the step which he had resolved on 
himself, or that some of them might come under the spell 
of Christ’s influence and give up the old life for a life of 
greater usefulness. The mission of the Twelve in Galilee 
and that of the Seventy in Perzea was the natural out- 
growth of a similar desire, engendered and kept alive in 
the hearts of the disciples by the missionary aims and pur- 
poses of Jesus. They were potential missionaries from the 
time of their first interview with the first real Missionary, 
who took such pains to train and educate them for the 
work of evangelization at home and abroad. 

There are a number of lessons we may learn from the 
facts already set forth in this chapter. One is that the 
credentials of the prospective minister or missionary are 
God-given. If he is to become a genuine evangelizer he 
must have a divine call. In the case of the Twelve, the 
call to service comes from Christ. It was a direct, per- 
sonal call. But the call of the Twelve does not for that 
reason lose its meaning for our own time, since the call to 
world-wide missionary service is not exhausted by the 
Twelve or the Seventy or even the Three Thousand at 
Pentecost. Asa matter of fact none of these groups could 
go into all the world and preach the gospel to generations 
yet unborn. And yet who would deny that this is the task 
of the Christian Church today with her glorious heritage 
of evangelic truth? In calling the Twelve, Jesus was 
providing and planning for the future. The work begun 
by Him was to be carried on and perpetuated by the apos- 
tles and their spiritual successors in every age. If the 
borders of the kingdom are to be enlarged so as to include 
distant empires, unexplored continents and the people of 
succeeding generations, then the call of Christ and of His 
Church must ever go forth, with no uncertain sound, for 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 333 
an increasing number of apostolic men to carry the gospel 
to geographical areas hitherto untouched by the apos- 
tolic age. 

Moreover, the Christian religion is such that the em- 
phasis in all missionary endeavours must be on the thor- 
oughness of the work done. Missionary operations, un- 
dertaken on a large scale, are not like a whirlwind political 
campaign. In Christian missions the work must be both 
intensive as well as extensive. The whole man must be 
evangelized and to evangelize a world of men requires 
more time than was at the disposal of the apostolic Church, 
If the field is the world, the Master surely could not have 
meant to limit His call to the Twelve to whom it was origi- 
nally addressed. As shown by many a parable, Jesus knew 
beyond the shadow of a doubt that His missionary pro- 
gram could only be progressively realized. His call for 
workers to continue the work which He had begun, was 
not a temporary expedient limited to the apostolic age. It 
is of permanent value and is just as valid today as it was 
nineteen centuries ago. There is a line of continuity be- 
tween the first Christian century and our own. The task 
committed to the Church of apostolic times is just as much 
our task, and a larger army of apostolic men is needed 
today than ever before. The onward march of the gospel 
calls for men, for the best, the strongest and the most 
heroic men, for the work is just as hard today, if not 
harder, than it ever was. And who is to do the calling? 
God in Christ does the calling. Nothing so dignifies and 
glorifies our lifework as the realization that we have been 
divinely called and set apart for special service in the Mas- 
ter’s kingdom. There is much food for thought in a pow- 
erful sermon preached by Horace Bushnell on the theme, 
“Every man’s life a plan of God.” If the voice of Old 
Testament prophecy could say of a heathen emperor by the 
name of Cyrus, King of Persia, “I have called thee by thy 


8384 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


name. I gird thee, though thou hast not known Me” (Isa. 
45:4, 5), then surely you and I have a place in God’s plan 
of salvation. God has a plan for your life and mine. He 
has a special work for every one of His disciples today. 
To complete and fill out His framework of redemption, He 
calls men still; it is that call alone which raises up faithful 
men for the ministry. 

But how shall a man know when God calls, seeing that 
Christ is no longer in the flesh? ‘That all Christians are 
called in a general way to some form of Christian service 
is clear enough, but how shall a young man recognize the 
call of God to special service? The consciousness of it 
may flash upon his soul with all the certainty of a pro- 
phetic call, or it may gradually dawn and grow upon him 
in the course of his Christian experience by providential 
means, by the opening of the door of opportunity, by the 
consciousness of a gift pointing to the ministry as a life- 
work, by the conviction of conscience, or the advice of a 
trusted friend. The ministerial call, as previously re- 
marked, may come in one of a number of ways. To the 
average young man of today this adds to the difficulty of 
recognizing such a call as divine when it comes. Like the 
youth Samuel in the temple at Shiloh, he is unable to dis- 
tinguish the voice of God from that of a mere man. But 
the voice and its meaning was interpreted, as we know, by 
aman of maturer years and larger experience in the person 
of Eli. The youth of today is in need of an interpreter, 
and who is better qualified to act in such a capacity than 
his own pastor? Let him take his difficulties and perplexi- 
ties to his pastor or some other qualified person, and the 
voice of God and its meaning will become plain. Better 
still, let every pastor make clear to his Sunday-school 
scholars, to his catechetical classes, in his ministrations in 
the sanctuary and in his pastoral work during the week, 
the practical meaning of the call to the ministry. To a 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 335 


man of initiative and hallowed common sense, opportuni- 
ties will not be lacking for throwing whatever light he may 
have upon a perplexing subject. The Epistle and Gospel 
lessons of the Church Year readily lend themselves to such 
interpretations in the presence of the entire congregation. 
There is no lack of opportunity for presenting this theme, 
no matter what series of Scripture lessons the pastor may 
be using. Thus, in many cases, the home of the boy is 
reached through some of his relatives and friends in the 
congregation ; sometimes the boy himself is reached. And 
as in every well organized parish the Sunday-school or 
Church-school is an integral part of church life, the pastor 
has an excellent opportunity of establishing contacts that 
will be helpful to the growing boy. Sometimes the reticent 
boy, who would shrink from a personal interview with his 
pastor, can best be reached by his Sunday-school teacher 
or perhaps by the Sunday-school superintendent, the 
Scout-master, the manager of the baseball or basketball 
team or the councilor at the summer camp. 

At all events, this type of boy needs looking after, and 
the pastor will do well to cultivate his acquaintance and 
get his confidence. He reminds us of the young man who 
was to guide the destinies of Israel. When Samuel and 
the men of Israel “ sought him, he could not be found,” 
and so the search was continued, until they found him 
“hiding among the stuff” (I Sam. 10:21,22). Saul was 
a natural born leader ; he possessed, among other things, a 
splendid physique. ‘‘ When he stood among the people, he 
was higher than any of them. And Samuel said unto all 
the people, See ye him, whom the Lord hath chosen!” 
(10:23, 24). Shyness on his part was no disqualification 
for leadership any more than it is in the youth of today, 
who is talkative enough on most subjects but exceedingly 
reticent in spiritual matters. His diffidence, like that of 
Moses and Jeremiah, must in some way be overcome by 


3836 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the patient pastor or the persevering friend, otherwise men 
who are born to lead and to win souls for the kingdom will 
remain hidden “among the stuff’ of a perishing world. 
The pastor, of all men, is most competent to seek him out, 
for he may be the very young man “ whom the Lord hath 
chosen.” If there is any doubt about his qualifications, let 
the pastor follow the example of the perplexed Israelites 
and “ inquire of the Lord” (I Sam. 10: 22), and the Lord 
of the unreaped harvest will answer him, so that he may be 
able to find the right kind of labourers or, to change the 
figure, let him remember what the Master said to the 
fishermen, “I will make you fishers of men.” In due time 
the Master will enable some of these very boys to become 
fishers of men. But before the Master can do that, some- 
body has to find the young men, “ whom the Lord hath 
chosen ” and called for special service. 

Search had to be made for Saul until he was found. 
According to the book of Jonah, God sought out the hiding 
place of the prophet and sent him forth on his errand to 
the people of Nineveh. But the problem of finding men 
of the right sort for the Christian ministry is not so simple 
for the reason that God in the vast majority of cases works 
out His plans through human agency. It is instructive to 
note, in this connection, that of the Twelve, Jesus is said 
to have gained Philip and Matthew, while Peter was 
brought to Christ by Andrew, James by John, Nathanael 
by Philip, and credit must be given to John the Baptist for 
pointing John and Andrew to One greater than himself. 
Who had gained the others is not expressly stated. How- 
ever, it is reasonable to suppose that some of the latter 
were won by the disciples themselves. Experience proves 
that God usually works through human instrumentality in 
making His call known to men. God does the choosing 
and the calling; there is no doubt about that. But the call 
to the kingship was brought home to Saul’s consciousness 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 337 


by the men of Israel, who “ran and fetched him” from 
his hiding place. With us today, though we would not 
presume to put any limitations to God’s direct intervention 
in the case of some of His unwilling prophets, many men 
whom the Lord has truly called are won for the ministry 
through human instrumentality. There is all the more 
reason for seeking them out with all diligence, because the 
Lord has chosen them for the work of the ministry. We 
must search for them and bring them to Jesus, remember- 
ing the example of John the Baptist and of the three dis- 
ciples mentioned above. Jesus will be the best Judge of 
their fitness for special service. These men had made no 
mistake in bringing Peter, James and Nathanael to Christ. 
And—be it remarked in passing—it is no reflection upon 
Jesus that Judas was numbered for a time among the 
Twelve, for at the time of his selection and call, Satan had 
not as yet entered into his heart; that happened later 
toward the close of nearly three years of training for full 
apostolic service. 

This, however, does not justify the modern disciple of 
Jesus in slackening his efforts to find recruits for the min- 
istry. The question of their fitness can be more readily 
determined with the unfolding of their character and the 
progress of their religious education. In the case of the 
growing boy, the period of preparation leading to minis- 
terial service—generally the high school, the college and 
the seminary course—will be sufficient ordinarily for a 
sympathetic study of his qualifications before the average 
congregation will be called upon by the proper authorities, 
in case of a pastoral vacancy, to put the stamp of its ap- 
proval upon his qualifications for ministerial service by 
declaring that he will be acceptable to them for the work of 
the ministry. By electing and calling him to the vacant 
pastorate the congregation bears testimony to its convic- 
tion that the young man, who has preached to them, has a 


3838 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


divine call. As a further safeguard to the flock against 
the possible intrusion of men “whom the Lord has not 
sent,” both the call of the local congregation and the quali- 
fications of the candidate in question are carefully gone 
into by the synod which ordains him. Although no one 
would be sanguine enough to regard the present system as 
perfect, it is encouraging to know that many who are not 
called to this high office can be weeded out from the ranks 
both before and after ordination by synod. That mistakes 
can be made under the present system is no reason for 
becoming cynical about the call to the ministry. We can- 
not afford to part with our conviction that God does call 
men for ministerial service, whatever difficulties we may 
have in recognizing some of the characteristic tokens of it 
in the individual boy. The real difficulty is not with the 
call or even with the boy himself; the real difficulty is with 
ourselves: we must study the boy and find out, how mani- 
fold are the workings of divine grace in the lives of 
individuals. 

The call is not always the same in every individual case. 
If the pastor is to help the boy wrestling with the problem 
of his lifework, his sympathies must be deep and broad 
enough to understand boy-life. In studying the qualifica- 
tions of his boys he will discover that some of them are 
fitted for the ministry while others—perhaps the great 
majority—are better qualified for a business career, and in 
giving advice he will be candid, honest and fair with each 
of them for the sake of all concerned. But the surprising 
feature of such a study will be that, to all appearances, 
God had been calling more boys than were conscious of it 
at the time. The possession of the necessary qualifications 
in their case proves the call. God never calls a man to 
ministerial service without equipping him for the work. 
All they needed was a faithful interpreter of the divine 
call and the meaning of life. And since it is not unlikely 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 339 


that God may be calling some to ministerial service who 
are not yet fully conscious of it, let no young man with the 
proper qualifications definitely decide what his lifework is 
to be without first considering the claims of the Christian 
ministry. There is no calling in life which enables a man 
more fully to focus all his God-given powers upon the 
work of the Lord. It is not the easiest nor the most lucra- 
tive work that you might undertake, but it is the most 
heroic and the most worth-while. The greatness of the 
work is not to be exaggerated. To catch men in the net 
of the gospel and wrestle with immortal souls—what an 
arduous but glorious task! How immeasurably above all 
callings is such a lifework! Your quest for souls may not 
meet with immediate success; the returns may be meagre 
for atime. But remember you will accomplish some good 
in the world. As in the case of the disciples, the Master 
has doubtless chosen some of you “and appointed you 
that ye should go and bear fruit and that your fruit 
should abide” (John 15:16). 

How are we to distinguish the call to Christian service 
from the many voices that are calling us to positions of 
material gain and comfort? The call of the world makes 
its appeal to every selfish interest known to man. But the 
best criterion of a genuine call to the ministry is the ele- 
ment of sacrifice which enters into it. To undertake such 
work really means that a man must be willing to exchange 
the lesser things of life for the privileges of Christian dis- 
cipleship. If the call is to be recognized as genuine there 
must be sacrifice in it. There is no room in the apostolic 
college for the man who is unwilling to sacrifice something 
for Christ. To the scribe who has his eye on temporal 
rewards, Jesus says, ‘‘ The foxes have holes and the birds 
of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). The disciples left every- 
thing they had—their temporal possessions, their homes, 


340 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


their employment—and followed Jesus. The fishermen 
had something to lose. They left their nets and boats by 
which they had their living. They did not enter into any 
worldly calculations as to their future maintenance. To 
them life was more than merely “ making a living ”; they 
were far more interested in the prospect of fishing for 
men’s souls than in casting the net into the lake. Gladly 
did they yield what little they had in the way of earthly 
possessions to this higher form of service. It was not the 
promise of an earthly throne or of a full money bag that 
attracted them. Christ never misrepresented things. 
They knew that the call to service meant hard uphill work 
and that they were facing a life of self-denial. But they 
were ready to make any sacrifice, because they had faith in 
Christ and in His cause. The same spirit of self-sacrifice 
prompted Matthew to leave the toll-booth and follow 
Jesus, for whose sake he was willing to risk everything. 
For Levi-Matthew the call meant the surrender of the 
comfort and the certainty of his worldly calling for the 
uncertainty and the poverty of a ministry modelled after 
that of the Master Himself. To qualify for definite Chris- 
tian service, he relinquished his secular occupation and 
emoluments, preferring a Christ-proclaimed gospel to the 
jingle of Roman coins. “And he left all, rose up and 
followed Him.” 

The disciple of today can do no less. Anything short of 
this is a disqualification for ministerial service. Wealthy 
young men of the “ Rich Young Ruler” type are not fit 
candidates for the ministry. They lack one thing—the 
spirit of true discipleship. It is the age-long story of 
Mammon and God, the god of riches being given the 
preference. When Jesus calls to men of this type for the 
surrender of the last barrier to full service, they “ go away 
sorrowful,’ preferring their miserable possessions to the 
priceless treasures of the kingdom. In that case, to be 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 341 


well to do here is to be eternally poor yonder. The pursuit 
of riches is a dangerous thing when it keeps a man from 
following the call of Jesus to a higher service and a nobler 
work; it called Judas away from the side of Jesus Christ 
to become a traitor. No;a so-called clean life and average 
respectability are no substitute for a life of self-surrender 
to the will of God. The disposition to serve others is not 
acquired on the way to “ Wall Street,” but on the way to 
Calvary. The response of Jesus to the call of God was 
self-sacrificing. He preferred poverty toa life of ease in 
order that He might be among us as “ One that serves.” 
He asked for no sacrifice that He was not willing to make 
Himself. If it was required of the disciples that they 
should leave home, He had already met that requirement 
at the commencement of His public ministry by leaving the 
home in Nazareth. Following His example, John and 
James left their father Zebedee in the boat, with the hired 
servants, Simon left his home in Capernaum, and the other 
disciples did likewise. To them, Jesus of Nazareth was 
the most important Person that ever lived; far more im- 
portant than home and kindred, relatives and friends. 
There is a higher duty than that of being subject to one’s 
parents, whether they happen to live in Nazareth or else- 
where. Though we love our parents, our relatives and 
friends, we must love Him more, since He is nearer to us 
than any or all of these. When Jesus calls to special 
service, there must be no divided allegiance, for “he that 
loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of 
Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is 
not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and 
followeth after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10: 37- 
38). There are better things than money and perishable 
goods. There is a higher duty than that we owe to home 
and kindred, and the sacrifice that a man is prepared to 
make for the cause of Christ shows up the man. 


342 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


But why speak of sacrifice when the loss of a few paltry 
things—our earthly possessions—involves the greatest 
possible gain! We lose our boats and nets and leave our 
home and win Christ. Of all the disciples, Matthew pos- 
sibly made the greatest sacrifice. But so far from being 
depressed by the loss of every earthly prospect, he anoints 
himself, as it were, u with the oil of gladness ” by arrang- 
ing a feast in Christ’s honour for the purpose of showing 
his old colleagues that he was about to serve One greater 
than Cesar or his fawning creature—Herod Antipas. He 
was called away from the pursuit of riches to become a 
follower of Jesus Christ. He became poorer in a sense, 
and yet gained immeasurably by the exchange. By for- 
saking all to follow Christ, he lost a profitable calling, but 
found a noble manhood and a life pre-eminently worth 
while. The disciples lost nothing; they gained everything. 
Blessed—thrice blessed—are we, if our history can be 
summed up in “ He called them unto Him and they came.” 
Earthly things must not keep us back from following Him. 
There is sure to be something in the way of a ready com- 
pliance with the Master’s call. Something will have to be 
given up. Let us be prepared for this, counting “all 
things but loss for the excellency of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Another lesson of practical value to be gleaned from the 
foregoing observations is that if the call is to become effec- 
tive it must be obeyed. Jesus called and “they followed 
Him.” The effectual call leads to discipleship. The one 
called must obey the call and become a follower of the 
great Teacher. Without such obedience there can be no 
discipleship. If the disciple is to learn of Jesus, he must 
follow Him in His daily wanderings as He moves about 
among the people, dispensing the means of grace, or retires 
to the mountain-top in order to be alone with God and His 
chosen disciples. In their case, the effectual call does not 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 343 


actually begin until they leave all and follow Him. From 
that time on we may speak of them, in a very real sense, as 
Christ’s followers. In keeping with oriental methods of 
teaching, they literally followed Jesus from place to place, 
for only in this way could they appropriate His teachings, 
study His methods, learn to appreciate His ideals and 
motives and catch the glorious inspiration of His match- 
less Personality. ; 

The words, “ Follow Me,” suggest the idea of fellow- 
ship as an essential condition of discipleship. The pri- 
mary purpose of the call was that the disciples “ should be 
with Him” constantly and learn of Him. The disciple, 
then, is a “ follower,” and to follow Jesus means constant 
association and unbroken fellowship with the greatest 
educator that the world has ever seen. To be endowed 
with great natural talents and capacities is excellent, but 
these gifts in themselves do not make the disciple. A full 
college or university course is highly desirable, but that 
spiritual force which is so indispensable to the prospective 
minister can be acquired only through day-by-day fellow- 
ship with Christ, listening to His words, witnessing His 
deeds and sharing His trials and temptations. No man is 
fit for Christian service who has not had some training 
with the Lord Himself. It is absolutely necessary for him 
to enter the school of the Master, that his powers may be 
developed, and last, but not least, that he may become more 
and more like Christ Himself. This is only another way 
of saying that the disciple, whether in the time of Jesus or 
in our own day, must be a Christian before he can engage 
in Christian work. The task of becoming like Christ 
would overwhelm us were it not for the enabling power 
of the call of Jesus. Moreover, it is a source of comfort 
to know that the task of becoming like Him is to be pro- 
gressively realized in the school of Christ. Our inability 
to measure up to the perfect stature of the Master is no 


344 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


disqualification for service any more than in the case of 
the disciples themselves. Relying upon the sustaining 
power of God’s grace, they did a wonderful work. Their 
connection with Jesus has immortalized the Eleven. The 
limitations and imperfections of human nature did not 
prevent them from reflecting in their lives the reflected 
glory of Christ’s character. Though far from perfect 
themselves, they were reflections of the perfect Christ as 
He was the reflection of God the Father and of His love 
for humanity. 

Surely some progress can be made on our part in a simi- 
lar direction by our willingness to enter the school of 
Christ, consecrating whatever talents God has given us 
and putting them at the Master’s disposal. And should 
He honour any of you with a call to the ministry, you may 
depend upon it that He will multiply and increase these 
talents for God-given ends. Remember that the closeness 
of your personal following of Christ is the measure of 
your power for ministerial service. To be much with 
Jesus is the best preparation for service. A degree from 
an institution of higher learning can never take the place 
of this kind of training, nor is it enough for a man to know 
all about the Bible; he must know his Bible and he must 
know Christ by constant fellowship with Him. But we 
cannot follow some extremists, who despise human learn- 
ing, because the disciples never had a preliminary arts 
course; this is nothing short of fanaticism. God wants us 
to have the best possible training for our lifework and 
that, in addition to the spiritual factor involved, virtually 
means a full college and seminary course. However, we 
do affirm that the wisdom of the schools is of little value 
without faith in the living Christ and close fellowship with 
Him. This element of spiritual communion cannot be dis- 
pensed with by the ministerial student. Only thus can he 
hope to imitate Christ in his work of preaching and healing, 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 345 

This being with Jesus, it will be noted in the next place, 
is not for the purpose of mere introspection or speculation 
on theological themes. The disciples were directed to fol- 
low Christ that they might be sent forth to preach. They 
have a mission to perform. They are to meet a practical 
need, and the time will come when they are to be commis- 
sioned for service. But how are they to meet that need? 
They are hardly conscious as yet of any ability to preach 
the gospel. To meet this difficulty they are reminded of 
the enabling power of the call of Christ. With the Mas- 
ter’s call to follow Him there goes the sure promise, “I 
will enable you to become fishers of men.” ‘The peerless 
Preacher will teach them how to preach and then send 
them forth on their first trial mission with the net of the 
gospel, so that they might acquire, in a practical way, the 
art of preaching by putting into practice some of the things 
they have learned from the Master. Reference has been 
made to the enabling power of the call. We might also 
speak, with equal propriety, of the enabling power of the 
Master’s commissioning voice. ‘“‘ How shall they preach 
unless they be sent?” My friend, if you cannot preach, 
the Master will teach you how. The very name “ apostle ” 
suggested to the disciple that he was to be a missionary in 
the broadest sense of the term. In like manner the pros- 
pective minister is a missionary with a definite message to 
his fellowmen. Let him go forth, then, and deliver his 
message, knowing that the Master’s commission to preach 
is sufficient authority, conferring upon the one commis- 
sioned the power to preach, provided he will stir up the 
gift entrusted to him. 

But if the disciple of Jesus is to practice his Master’s art 
and win men for the kingdom, he must have an adequate 
motive. What is the controlling motive in the preaching 
activity of Jesus? He dines with Matthew and his friends 
out of loving regard for lost sinners. It was not long 


846 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


before the Pharisees appeared on the scene, misinterpret- 
ing His motives and challenging the propriety of His 
course of action. In replying to His critics, Jesus inci- 
dentally points to the purpose of His coming to earth by 
comparing Himself to a Psysician, whose duty it was to 
heal the sick. A pitying and sympathizing Saviour cannot 
help saving all such as are conscious of their lost condition. 
To do so is divine; it is like God the Father Himself, 
whose great heart of love He had come to reveal. The 
Pharisees have yet to learn that love to God and man is a 
very essential part of religion, whether in Old or New 
Testament days. Loving sympathy to those in need is the 
fundamental requirement of the law and the prophets. 
Let them ponder the meaning of Hosea 6:6, where the 
prophet virtually says, “ Merciful love I desire and a prac- 
tical knowledge of God that prompts a man to loving deeds 
rather than the giving of things for sacrificial purposes.” 
Whatever one does must spring from a loving heart. A 
man cannot be religious, or have faith in God, without this 
loving attitude to those in need. Jesus elsewhere speaks 
of religion in terms of faith as an attitude toward God. 
But faith in God cannot be adequately expressed in acts 
of worship and devotion. There is a man-to-man relation 
in religion, and since religion is not to be thought of with- 
out its human relationships, we may show our love to God 
by loving our fellowmen. ‘This love finds expression in 
the human sphere in which God has placed us. 

By throwing the emphasis on the inner motive of the 
heart, Jesus simplifies religion, disentangling that which is 
really essential from a mass of secondary details and du- 
ties. In the light of that interpretation the way for the 
Christian is clear; in all that he does he must be actuated 
by love, which is the first and last commandment. Jesus 
calls it the new commandment which, when applied to re- 
ligion and life, renders all other commandments unneces- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 347 


sary. Love does not stop with the literal fulfilment of the 
law ; it goes beyond it. If asked to go one mile, the Chris- 
tian will go two, and his motive for doing so is love. The 
love of Christ is the only adequate motive for service. It 
lies at the basis of all missionary effort. In His tour of 
Galilee, Jesus visited the cities and towns in that thickly 
populated district, spending His time in ceaseless journeys, 
and that not for selfish reasons but for love’s sake, to win 
immortal souls for the kingdom. It was compassion for 
the multitude that led Jesus to send out the Twelve that 
they might supplement His missionary efforts in Galilee 
and come to the aid of a neglected people suffering for lack 
of a true shepherd’s care. The Saviour’s compassion was 
not a mere sentiment as so frequently with us; it moved 
Him to preach and to send out others to teach the way of 
salvation. His self-denying love for souls was too great 
to permit Him to leave them to their fate. There was a 
crying need which had to be met; it touched His heart and 
moved Him to corresponding action. In the face of all this 
spiritual destitution He simply had to do something to res- 
cue those who were in dire distress. He cannot do other- 
wise. There is a compelling motive in all that He does for 
humanity, and that is His merciful and compassionate love. 

How unlike that poor, pulseless, throbless thing which is 
sometimes called love in ordinary life, but which is nothing 
more than cheap sentiment. There are those who feel 
sorry for the unchurched masses at home and for the un- 
evangelized masses abroad, and yet they do nothing to 
make Christ known by helping to spread the gospel. They 
are like a stalled engine; there is no power to move them 
from within; there is no driving dynamic, no constraining 
power. ‘Their love for everybody but themselves is cold 
and dead. Love as a sentiment they know, but there is no 
sacrifice init. They have no heart for the needy, no yearn- 
ing compassion for lost souls, and that is why, in this mis- 


348 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 
sionary age, many so-called Christians are interested in 
none of these things. There are urban centres, having 
more than a proportionate share of churches, where mis- 
sionary activities are confined to the pastor and a few 
faithful women. The truth of the matter is that with the 
abounding of churches there may yet be a famine of the 
Word of God, for want of Christian men and women filled 
with the missionary spirit. The spring of every mission- 
ary endeavour is compassion for souls. ‘The man who is 
not moved by such a motive to Christ-like action needs to 
question very seriously whether he loves the Lord at all, 
and has any right to be called a Christian. For is not 
every Christian really a fruit of the Saviour’s compassion 
for the perishing? How, then, can we escape the same 
constraining power as a motive for true Christ-like ser- 
vice? Christ’s love for us ought to awaken some response 
in these dull hearts of ours. To the Christian it has con- 
straining power, “ for the love of Christ constraineth us.” 
To visualize the needs of others, it is necessary to regard 
the multitudes not as the multiplication of so many eco- 
nomic units or mere “ hands.’ What did Jesus see as He 
looked out upon the teeming multitudes? So many imper- 
sonal units, like the employees of a large industrial plant, 
who are known to the management as number so and so? 
No; He views them not as the coldly calculating repre- 
sentatives of big business which has lost the human touch, 
but as human personalities with immortal souls. His sym- 
pathy and tenderness extends to every individual soul in 
that mass of humanity. This explains why He wants the 
Twelve and later on the Seventy and all His followers 
everywhere, to help Him reach the individual soul, which 
is so infinitely precious in God’s sight. The people may 
have an economic value to a man bent on exploiting his 
fellowmen for material returns. Such heartless calcula- 
tions are foreign to the mind and spirit of Jesus, who is 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 349 


supremely interested in spiritual values. To be sure, He 
feeds the hungry multitudes, as we are told, with the 
loaves and fishes, but only after feeding them, for days at 
a time, with the Bread of Life. Jesus views man in the 
totality of his being. His Gospel is no one-sided gospel. 
He is no Bread-King, neither is Christianity so “ other- 
worldly ” and so spiritual as to be impractical so far as this 
world is concerned. Jesus meets every need. At times 
He ministered to the body as well as the soul. But there 
is a decided emphasis on the spiritual function of Chris- 
tianity. Priority must be given to soul-values, because 
they are by far the more important. By making the king- 
dom of God our first concern all other human relation- 
ships—social, political and economic—will find their 
proper adjustment. The kingdom within is more funda- 
mental and basic than the kingdom without, and the state 
of the soul and of the religious life is of far greater con- 
cern to Jesus than the physical needs of His countrymen. 
When He saw the multitudes His great heart heaved 
with emotion at the sight of a spiritually prostrate people. 
There may have been many among them, who had come to 
be healed of their physical infirmities; others there may 
have been, who were mentally afflicted, but the thing that 
affected Jesus most of all was the sad spiritual condition 
of the people He loved. In that same multitude some may 
have been in a holiday-mood, buoyant with pleasurable 
excitement ; they are the physically fit, they are well-fed 
and well-clad, and yet this outer show of prosperity was no 
index of their spiritual condition. To the eye of Jesus, 
they, too, were like shepherdless sheep scattered over the 
bleak scenes of human selfishness, spiritual ignorance and 
guilt. His penetrating gaze pierced the outer surface of 
things to the soul within, and He pitied every one of them, 
because He loved them personally and individually. The 
great Shepherd will continue to call His wandering sheep 


850 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


back to the fold of God and shower His love upon them to 
His dying day. Such love, though crucified, “ will draw 
all men unto Him.” It is the only hope of the world. 
Without it we are lost—utterly lost and swallowed up by 
this awful deluge of human sin and guilt. Though men 
are bound together by human ties and crowded together in 
populous cities, their benighted, sin-cursed souls are scat- 
tered and lost, unless the Master’s pitying cry for perishing 
humanity finds an echo in the hearts of His followers and 
stirs them to action. This is the test of true discipleship. 
But before the disciples can be sent forth on their mis- 
sion of preaching and healing, the compassion which they 
feel in their hearts for the spiritual prostration of their 
people must first lead to prayer for the right kind of 
under-shepherds who will seek the scattered sheep, or, 
changing the figure, for suitable labourers to gather in the 
spiritual harvest. Earnest petition and prayer, which is in 
sympathy with the missionary aims of Jesus, prepares for 
service and, therefore, precedes action. Christ’s compas- 
sion moved Him to prayer and the disciples are bidden to 
pray as a preparation for work similar to His own. In 
His progress through Galilee, Jesus discovered the great- 
ness of the work and the fewness of the workers, on ac- 
count of which He now appeals to His disciples. He 
emphasizes the need of earnest, intercessory prayer that 
labourers may be raised up and “thrust forth” into a 
harvest of waiting souls. The people were flocking to the 
good Shepherd because those who should have taught and 
led them were “ blind guides ” (Matt. 23:16). They were 
ready to hear the Gospel, but could not for lack of unselfish 
labourers. The efficiency of the labourers that are needed 
depends upon their being good pastors who know how to 
shepherd the flock of God. Pastors with an evangelic 
message are needed to replace the conventional rabbis ap- 
pointed by law and not impelled by love. But how shall 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 351 


preachers of this type be secured? The only remedy for 
this deficiency of labourers is prayer flowing from a true 
Christ-like compassion for souls, which must be so intense 
as to move them to carry up their desires to God. Our 
hope for Christian missions lies in the providing power of 
God, who alone can qualify and commission labourers for 
a harvest of immortal souls. 

But why are the labourers so few at the time of Christ’s 
missionary tour in Galilee, as well as before and after that 
time? Why has the Lord of the harvest failed to provide 
an adequate supply of workers for His vast mission field? 
Is it through lack of compassion for His creatures? 
Christ’s compassion proves the contrary. Do we not read 
somewhere that “God so loved the world” that He gave 
to a world of perishing humanity His only-begotten Son? 
And yet the startling fact remains that Jesus urges His 
disciples to pray for workers before sending them out to 
preach the gospel. Why did Jesus remind His disciples 
of the necessity of prayer as a preparation for service? 
Because God needed to be reminded of the sad dispropor- 
tion between the work and the workers? If that were the 
case it would be far more becoming for Jesus to do that. 
The Son of God was in constant communion with the 
Father. He did pray, but He also wanted the disciples to 
pray. Why? Because God works through human agency. 
This accounts for the appalling disproportion between the 
vastness of the work and the fewness of the labourers. 
It is not through lack of interest on the part of God. He 
is ready to reap the harvest as soon as the reapers are 
ready. The fact is men are free agents, and hence the 
labourers that have been called to labour in the vineyard 
have often been languid and remiss in their missionary 
endeavours, and the result is that vast stretches of the 
harvest field remain unreaped. God coerces no man. 
Though omnipotent and all-powerful, the only omnipo- 


852 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


tence that God will bring to bear upon His prospective 
labourers is the omnipotence of divine love. If that fails, 
God’s program for world-wide evangelization fails like- 
wise. Men must be moved to pray for missions out of 
love for their fellowmen. ‘There is always some unwil- 
lingness to overcome, if not on the part of the original 
Twelve, at least on the part of the average Christian. 
And so far as the human factor in prayer is concerned, 
we are not so sure that the stimulating effect of interces- 
sory prayer was unnecessary even in the case of the mem- 
bers of the apostolic band, especially with Judas among 
them. Nor is Peter, the spokesman of the Twelve, alto- 
gether beyond the need of such prayer, as may be seen 
from the question which he asks in Matthew 19:27. The 
thought of compensating rewards disappears in a prayer 
which breathes the spirit of self-denying love. Such love 
asks for no reward other than the coveted opportunity of 
being sent out by the Master with a message that will meet 
every need. The need in Galilee is not sufficient to con- 
vert the disciples into missionaries. But when they see 
and feel the Master’s yearning compassion for hungry 
souls their hearts are touched and they, too, begin to 
wrestle with God in intercessory prayer. And now, after 
wrestling with God and themselves, they are in sympathy 
with the Master’s plans, and Jesus not long thereafter 
sends forth on a mission of mercy the very men whom He 
had moved to pray. Would the ministry ever lack for 
suitable candidates, if the Church yearned over men’s souls 
in intercessory prayer, and constantly kept before her 
young people the sense of obligation to consecrate every 
God-given talent to His service? The preaching office is 
of the utmost importance for the well-being of the Church. 
A supply of faithful ministers will be available as soon as 
the conducting rods of prayer rise up into the region of 
divine influences and of the desires of God; they must 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 353 


point in the direction of God’s will, and His will is that 
all men should be saved. The disciple must pray for more 
disciples; the preacher for more preachers; and not only 
preachers, but all Christians, should intercede for the un- 
saved as Jesus and the disciples interceded for them. 
Those engaged in the work are to be the chief intercessors 
for more workers. While it is the duty of every true 
preacher to be on the constant lookout for more preachers, 
the burden of securing an adequate supply of men rests on 
every labourer in the Master’s vineyard, whether lay or 
clerical. Love for souls and prayer in their behalf will 
prepare many a praying disciple to respond to the call for 
more labourers in a field that waves wide and perishing 
over all the earth. 

Genuine compassion for perishing men will naturally 
lead to prayer for more labourers. This kind of prayer 
ought much oftener to form a vital part of our public and 
private supplications. A pitying and interceding Saviour 
and a group of disciples earnestly praying for more la- 
bourers ought to fill our hearts with shame, when we think 
of the weak, dull, hollow, formal, loveless and meaningless 
prayers that are uttered by a host of lip-servants and 
nominal Christians, who have the name that they are liv- 
ing but, lo, they are dead and cold to the crying needs of 
a perishing world. Can it be possible that any man who is 
called of God to devote himself to preaching the gospel 
should accord but scant consideration to the Master’s ap- 
peal for loving intercession in the interests of a work tran- 
scending local parish lines? Can a Christian be a true 
disciple without feeling a tender concern for the millions 
who are perishing both in our own country and in other 
lands? Who can think of the teeming multitudes in for- 
eign countries as well as of the pagans in our own land 
without exclaiming, “ The harvest truly is plenteous, but 
the labourers are few’? 


354 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Though labourers have greatly multiplied since the days 
of Christ, the supply of workers is entirely out of all pro- 
portion to the number of souls waiting to be reaped. 
Never was so large a harvest field open for the sickle as in 
our own day. Ripening fields call for more labourers, but 
the needed workers are still few in proportion to the de- 
mand. There need be no attempt on the part of the work- 
ers in this field to restrict the workers to a favoured few 
in order to keep down competition. In Christian work the 
immigrant from foreign lands is just as welcome as the 
home-born. Christ never wrote any exclusion acts into 
the constitution of His kingdom. He did say, ‘“‘ Go not 
into any way of the Gentiles, but rather to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel.” This limitation, however, was 
confined to the trial mission in Galilee, and was subse- 
quently removed by the command to “ go into all the world 
and make disciples of all nations.” The missionary pro- 
gram of Jesus, viewed as a whole, has no room for 
“ favoured nation ” clauses, or preferential treatment for 
either Jew or Gentile. Narrow-mindedness and jealousy 
have no place in a message which is intended for the entire 
human family. The desire in the world to limit and regu- 
late the number of workers to keep up wages, if applied to 
Christianity, would be downright treason to both God and 
man. Men’s spiritual needs are so great, the field is so 
immense and the harvest of souls so enormous, that as 
many workers as can possibly be equipped are needed for 
the work, and it is our duty to pray for more workers. 
The supply of workers has always been deficient and the 
available material never catches up to the demand, owing 
to the individual equation in human nature. Human self- 
ishness must be overcome, and the only way to overcome it 
is to wrestle with God and ourselves with a flaming pas- 
sion for souls, and the way will be open for the progres- 
sive realization of the missionary aims of Jesus. The need 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 355 


for more workers is exceedingly urgent; they will not be 
secured unless we learn to pray in the spirit of Jesus and 
with true apostolic zeal, firmly believing that the Lord of 
the harvest will hear our prayers and grant our requests. 
God alone can endow the workers with the necessary gifts, 
inspire them with generous aims and send them forth on 
glorious and triumphant missions. 

There is still another lesson of great practical value that 
cannot be overlooked in our present discussion, and that is 
the matter of Christian stewardship. Prayer is a steward- 
ship. But how provincial is the attitude of many of us 
toward this solemn commitment. To limit our prayers to 
the asking of favours for ourselves and our loved ones is 
a kind of selfish beggary. The sphere of interest in which 
such petitions move is the immediate family, our own flesh 
and blood, our own kinsmen. What a narrow outlook on 
life and what a commentary on our own selfishness! 
What of the great human family and its crying needs, es- 
pecially in the domain of religion? This is not interces- 
sory prayer at all; it is selfishness disguised as piety. But 
how stimulating to heart and mind is intercessory prayer ! 
It lends dignity to our lives, enlarges our sympathies, 
broadens our vision and widens the circle of responsibility 
in which we move. By praying for India, Africa, China 
or Japan we will want to learn more about the country and 
people for whom we are praying. And so, when the 
Macedonian cry is heard, the interceding disciple is ready 
to go to his modern “ Galilee,” all things being equal, of 
course. The remarkable thing about intercessory prayer 
is that the interceding disciple ordinarily becomes a candi- 
date for appointment as God’s messenger, because of his 
willingness to respond to the call of service. Loving inter- 
cession prepares for service. 

Attention has been called in the preceding paragraphs to 
the importance of prayer as a preparation for service. 


856 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


The emphasis upon prayer at this stage of the apostles’ 
training grew out of the discovery of a great spiritual need 
in their native province. Compassion for the multitude 
leads Jesus and the disciples to pray that the need might 
soon be met and, strange to say, the prayer of the interced- 
ing disciples is followed by their first soul-winning cam- 
paign in Galilee. Was it a mere coincidence, or was the 
sending out of the Seventy at a later date the fruit of that 
prayer? It may be that the men who were sent to Perza 
were among Christ’s followers at this time; but still there 
is some warrant for thinking that the mission of the 
Twelve is no less a fruit of this prayer than the subsequent 
mission of the Seventy. The disciples interceded for Gali- 
lee and Jesus sent them out on their first trial mission; 
they continued to pray and others caught the spirit of that 
intercessory prayer, and they, too, began to pray, with the 
result that the Seventy were commissioned to preach in 
Perzea. The only point that we want to bring out here is 
that there is a connection between prayer and missionary 
activity. The compassionate love of Jesus, as we have 
seen, was no mere sentiment. It moved Him to action; it 
was a powerful motive urging and driving the disciples to 
intercessory prayer. But loving intercession is not enough, 
for it is the nature of true love to do something to show its 
true worth. Protestations of love must be backed up by 
loving deeds; promises and good intentions are worthless 
without corresponding action. And so, in the spiritual 
realm, action must follow prayer. Christ’s “ Pray ye” is 
converted into “Go ye.” Prayer is not the culmination of 
discipleship ; that is reached in the call to service. Prayer, 
to be sure, takes us to the lofty heights of intercession, of 
spiritual aspiration and communion with God, but it also 
sends us down to the valley of human need, where the call 
to service cannot be consistently refused. The disciple of 
today must learn to pray and not shrink from the apos- 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 357 


tolic implications of earnest and persistent prayer. He 
must work as well as pray. This is the culminating point 
of Christian discipleship. ‘The steps leading up to it are 
compassionate love, loving intercession and loving service. 
This is the apostolic sequence and the great impelling mo- 
tive in the whole process is love—the kind of love that will 
not shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of Christ and 
His kingdom. 

But, as already intimated, there is also a subsidiary 
motive in Christian service, growing out of the motive of 
love. It is the motive of stewardship, to which Jesus ap- 
peals in sending out the Twelve on their Galilean mission. 
The gift of healing with which they have been endowed, is 
to be regarded by them as a sacred trust over which they 
have no absolute property rights. They are like stewards 
who must give an account to their Master for the way in 
which they have administered the property entrusted to 
them. The things committed to their charge have been 
given them for administrative purposes. What they have 
received is not for them to keep, but to pass on to others 
on the principle that “Freely ye have received, freely 
give.” This principle, applying originally to the steward- 
ship of healing sickness and casting out demons extends to 
every form of spiritual and material endowment. An ex- 
cellent comment on these words, illustrating how the prin- 
ciple works out in human life, is found in the paradoxical 
saying of Jesus in Matthew 10: 39, “ He that findeth his 
life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake 
shall find it,” or, as Luke 17: 33 has it, “ Whosoever shall 
seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose 
his life shall preserve it.” The primary meaning of the 
saying is that the man who in time of persecution or dan- 
ger denies Christ to save his earthly life loses eternal life, 
and the confessor who loses his bodily, temporal life out 
of loyalty to Christ’s cause gains the higher spiritual or 


358 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


eternal life. The self-seeker may gain a world, but he 
loses his own soul; he sacrifices the higher spiritual life to 
the lower sense-life of the body and, therefore, comes to 
grief sooner or later. The ultimate outcome of self- 
seeking is self-ruin. The law of the kingdom is self- 
sacrifice, not as an end in itself, but for the sake of the 
well-being of others and the honour of God. This is the 
purpose and goal of the Christian life. Every phase of it 
is a stewardship to be exercised for the good of others. 
The Christian steward gains the highest life and happiness 
by being faithful to his trust and not by regarding as his 
own the powers and rights delegated to him by the divine 
Sovereign. The old self-life with its insistence upon the 
pagan philosophy of getting and keeping must be aban- 
doned and Christ and His cause must be paramount. 

We hear a great deal in these days about the rights of 
man, and never a word is said in some quarters about the 
rights of God. Men wax warm and eloquent when they 
speak about absolute property rights and individual own- 
ership, but the ardour manifested in such discussions ap- 
proaches the freezing-point the moment an attempt is made 
to consider the subject from a Biblical angle. Evidently 
men do not get their ideas of ownership from the Bible. 
We will concede at once that property in the sense of abso- 
lute ownership is now regarded as a well established prin- 
ciple in the dominant law codes of western civilization. 
But any keen student of economic history will probably be 
clever enough to venture the guess that this idea of owner- 
ship was written into our law codes by the lawgiver among 
the nations, that is to say, by pagan Rome under the im- 
pact and influence of a powerful chain of Roman colonies 
distributed over the most strategical parts of Europe. The 
literature on the subject shows that imperial Rome was the 
first among the nations of the West to arrive at the idea of 
absolute private property, so that a man could do with his 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 359 


property almost as he pleased. However, this is not to be a 
study of comparative jurisprudence or of economic his- 
tory, but merely a brief digression for the sake of pointing 
out whence came the idea of property which is so current 
today in the world of business. Though it is correct in a 
sense to say that it originated in the selfish nature of man, 
the historical truth is that pre-Christian Rome first devel- 
oped and codified it and then gave it to her colonies in 
Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Spain and elsewhere. 
In course of time it was woven into the fabric of the 
“ Holy Roman Empire,” and subsequently, by degrees, of 
course, it found a place in the law codes of western civili- 
zation. We make these statements not for revolutionary 
purposes, God forbid; but simply that the truth in this 
regard may be more generally known, and the truth shall 
make us free by its own inherent power. “ Ye shall know 
the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 
8:32). All that we want to make clear is that according 
to the law of Cesar men may speak of the absolute rights 
of individual property, but not according to the law of 
God. The former regards practically all possessions, with 
minor exceptions, such as lands reserved for public pur- 
poses, as the absolute property of the individual, or at best 
the family in a very narrow sense; whereas the latter 
speaks of things temporal and spiritual in terms of stew- 
ardship or trusteeship. The Bible has nothing to say about 
the absolute rights of man, but it does make some definite 
pronouncements on the rights of God. Among these are 
the following: “The world is Mine and the fulness 
thereof” (Ps. 50:12). Both heaven and earth are the 
Lord’s (Deut. 10:14); He has created them (Gen. 1). 
“ The land is Mine” (Lev. 25:23). ‘‘ The silver is Mine 
and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Hag. 
2:8). “Every beast of the forest is Mine and the cattle 
upon a thousand hills” (Ps. 50: 10). 


860 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


God is the rightful Owner of the soil and of all things. 
Such divine ownership excludes the idea of absolute pro- 
prietorship so far as man is concerned. The latter is a 
temporary occupant or lessee of his Lord’s estate; he is a 
steward or trustee and in no sense a real owner or pro- 
prietor. He cannot secure title to property held in trust 
and no Title Insurance or Trust Company on earth is 
qualified to give it. Human law may allow it, but divine 
law does not sanction such transactions, and for all that 
man can do, the time will come when they will be revoked. 
The Bible plainly teaches that the individual! holder of any 
portion of God’s property is a steward who manages the 
property so entrusted, and possesses it for a time; but he 
does not own it; mere possession is not ownership. “ And 
if thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my 
hand hath gotten me this wealth, then thou shalt remember 
the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to 
get wealth” (Deut. 8:17-18). God alone gives the in- 
crease; He “gave us rain from heaven and fruitful sea- 
sons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 
14:17). He is “the Giver of every good and perfect 
gift” (James 1:17). He is no hard Master; He is the 
great Giver who gives unceasingly from the storehouse of 
an infinite realm. Nor is He an arbitrary despot or a 
selfish plutocrat, living on the unearned increment of His 
vast domains. Jesus says, “ My Father worketh even 
until now and I work” (John 5:17). God works and 
Jesus works, and we “are workers together with God” 
(II Cor. 6:1). How unselfishly has our God been toiling 
for countless ages, husbanding the resources and treasures 
of heaven and earth, not for His own benefit but for the 
good of His creatures. He is the only creative Worker, 
the source of life and of every spiritual and material bless- 
ing. “He giveth to all life and breath and all things ” 
(Acts 17:25). “He that spared not His own Son, but 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 361 


delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with 
Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). “ Ye are 
not your own, for ye are bought” with the price of 
Christ’s redeeming love (I Cor. 6: 19-20; cp. Acts 20: 28). 
“ All things that the Father hath are Mine” (John 16: 15), 

The life of Jesus is a beautiful illustration of the spirit 
of the divine Worker. He is the great Servant, the Ser- 
vant of servants, who walked the streets of earth in the 
humble garb of a lowly peasant. “I am among you as 
He that serves” (Luke 22:27). “Ye call Me Master 
and Lord, and ye say well; for sol am.” But “I say unto 
you, the servant is not greater than his Lord; neither He 
that is sent greater than He that sent Him” (John 13: 13, 
16). He was the Son of the King of kings, but He lays 
no selfish claim to the ordinary prerogatives of royalty or 
the “divine right” of earthly kings. ‘‘The Son of man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
His life as a ransom for many ” (Matt. 20:28). In Him 
there is no selfish assertion of ownership or absolute prop- 
erty rights in the things of earth on the basis of His unique 
relation to the Father. “ ‘Though He was rich, yet for 
your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty 
might become rich” (II Cor. 8:9). The saying of Jesus, 
“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20: 35), 
is an illuminating commentary on the life of Christ. It is 
the best practical definition of Christian stewardship that 
we have, and seems to have been spoken in connection with 
that other saying of the Master, “ Freely ye have received, 
freely give.” 

What these words meant to the disciples is clear from 
I Peter 4: 10, where the apostle remarks, “ As every man 
hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to 
another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 
The members of the Church in Jerusalem had no difficulty 
in understanding the purpose and meaning of the Christian 


362 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


life even in things temporal; not one of them affirmed 
“that ought of the things which he possessed was his 
own” (Acts 4:32). To point to the failure of the idea of 
stewardship as an economic venture in the early Church, 
especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, when Chris- 
tianity came into contact with the pagan world, is like 
saying that Christianity failed because it prevented the 
World War. Christianity never fails, but men, who are 
enslaved by their own selfishness, fail to apply Christian- 
ity. Christ did not fail, because He took His life very 
seriously. He regarded it as a stewardship, and the result 
was that Christianity was established. The disciples did 
not fail; they were true to their trust. What they had re- 
ceived was the free gift of God in Jesus Christ, and they 
went forth as “good stewards of the manifold grace of 
God,” making distribution of the gifts entrusted to them. 
Had they kept the gift and buried it in the grave, Chris- 
tianity would have perished with them. Fortunately for 
us, they did not regard the principles of stewardship as an 
impractical ideal. We are grateful to them and to our 
common Lord for teaching us that the ideal can be made 
real by regarding life in all its relationships—religious, 
social, economic and political—as a stewardship. 
Religion, then, is a stewardship. Christianity goes di- 
rectly back to Christ, who gave it to the world as a gratu- 
itous gift. And have we any right in the face of all that 
God in Christ has done for us to keep the gift to ourselves? 
Christ died for all “that they who live should not any 
longer live unto themselves, but unto Him, who died for 
them and rose again” (II Cor. 5:15). What is the domi- 
nant life-centre around which everything revolves? Do 
our lives gravitate toward God as the centre of our affec- 
tion or do they converge in the self-centre of an ungodly 
existence? Are we drawn to God and to our fellowmen 
by the power of God’s love and the dynamic of the cross, 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 363 


or is the self-centre of our insignificant lives the attracting 
magnet? Do we live unto God or unto self? For whom 
are we living? That is the question. We have a right to 
ask this question even of people who consider themselves 
quite religious. For the sake of honesty it must be frankly 
admitted that there is such a thing as religious selfishness. 
Many nominal Christians are actuated by self-interest 
rather than by love to God and their fellowmen. The in- 
dividualist in religion, who has a very inadequate concep- 
tion of the social implications of the Gospel, is a case in 
point. He accepts the usual tenets of Christian belief, but 
his religion does not stir his social affections. That Jesus 
went down to the depths of human degradation to reclaim 
sinners and restore them to spiritual sonship, does not 
teach him to go and do likewise, but merely to accept it as 
an historical fact, which has no practical bearing on life as 
he knows it today. The disciples, on the other hand, could 
not escape the social implications of the glorious facts of 
their Christian experience. Of course they were glad for 
their own sake that they had met Jesus, but did they let it 
go at that? The social contacts established by them with 
prospective disciples prove beyond a doubt that they 
were conscious of the stewardship involved in that glad 
discovery. 

Andrew and John, Philip, Matthew and others would 
never have become a factor in Christian missions, if they 
had taken their momentous secret out into the desert and 
buried it in the sand. To be sure, solitude has its place 
and meets a much-felt need at times. But solitude in the 
life of Jesus and of His disciples generally prepares for 
subsequent action and leads to something higher, The 
solitude of the desert or of the hill country must lead to 
fellowship with God. But the vision of the mountain-top 
means that fellowship with God must be succeeded by fel- 
lowship with man and by social contacts with the multitude 


364 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


in the valley of despair, if religion is to be an evangelizing 
force. There is a communion with God in quiet medita- 
tion and a time of receptive activity and absorption of the 
glorious facts of the gospel. But how is the disciple to 
exercise his gifts and put them to their intended use, if he 
lacks the inward disposition to go forth in loving service, 
making generous distribution of the gifts which Christ has 
bestowed upon him? Do native gifts come to their highest 
fruition in the isolation of a desert isle or in a busy world 
of human relationships? How, then, can the recipient of 
the greatest of all gifts make full proof of his ministry 
without getting out into the world and investing God’s 
capital where it will do the most good? Christianity with- 
out its social implications is unthinkable. To be with Jesus 
is a precious stewardship, including all that this means of 
wonderful instruction, inspiration, and the gift of preach- 
ing and healing. The terms of that stewardship imply that 
the disciple cannot live a life of religious isolation ; he must 
go out into Galilean society and turn to the advantage of 
the gospel whatever contacts he will be able to make with 
the people of his native province. The modern disciple, 
whether he be a preacher or a lay worker, is under a like 
obligation to go out among his fellows, so that he may 
develop and multiply his God-given talents. The man who 
has been with Jesus and claims to be in fellowship with 
Christ and His Church cannot escape his obligations to 
society, if he is at all conscious of his stewardship relation 
to God. | 

Every Christian ought to be conscious of that relation. 
Are you? If you are a Christian you cannot be ignorant 
of the fact that God in Christ has given you all things 
richly to enjoy. Your assurance of salvation lies in the 
gospel with all its healing powers of body, mind and soul. 
But have you ever realized that you are in grave danger of 
losing your own salvation as soon as you withhold from 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 865 


others God’s most precious gift? While the gospel is a 
gospel for individuals and has its personal side, yet the 
gospel without the motive and generous aims of Christian 
stewardship would have little to recommend it to others as 
“the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump” of humanity. 
The man who has imbibed the lofty principles of Chris- 
tianity and breathes the spirit of Jesus Christ cannot help 
imitating the example of Jesus and of His disciples. He 
may not be able to preach, but this is no barrier to the 
faithful exercise on his part of other phases of Christian 
stewardship. The Christian, of all men, ought to be only 
too glad to creep out of the shell of a narrow and selfish 
individualism and apply the gospel to the healing of the 
nations, Though many of us may lack the power of 
curing bodily ailments, nevertheless we are to be helpers in 
a very real sense, casting out the demons of selfishness and 
sin, of sorrow and despair and bringing spiritual help and 
refreshment to aching hearts and weary souls. 

Life as a whole is a stewardship, not an ownership. 
God is the source of all created life, “ He giveth to all 
life.” My life is not my own, both from the standpoint of 
creation and redemption. ‘‘ Ye are not your own, for ye 
are bought with a price.” We are His property. If God 
has created my life and redeemed my soul, His rights of 
property cannot be ignored. My life is dependent upon 
His will, and He has first claim upon it. Though I am in 
a sense a free agent (I Cor. 7:22), I cannot escape my 
stewardship relation. I do so at the risk of losing the only 
life worth living, and that is, to please God and help my 
neighbour. But I would not be ungrateful for unmerited 
blessings, for talents and powers, freely bestowed upon me 
by the loving hand of God. The recognition of my stew- 
ardship with all its implications, should be voluntary out 
of love to Him, who loved me first. This is what the dis- 
ciples did. They are fully conscious of the fact that what 


866 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 

they have received has not been entrusted to them merely 
for safe keeping, but for investment, so that it may bring 
a large return to their Lord. The gospel, with its healing 
effect upon humanity, is a treasure for investment. To 
keep it to save one’s soul is to forfeit the gift as a penalty 
for its disuse. Life, too, is a treasure—a very precious 
treasure. And you cannot keep it, unless you make the 
proper use of it by investing it where it will do the most 
good. This was the fatal mistake of the unfaithful stew- 
ard, who buried his Master’s talent in the dark vault of 
human selfishness. Every such buried treasure not only 
defrauds the Owner, who is God, but also the unfaithful 
steward himself. No gift can be kept by hiding it in the 
recesses of our being. It has little or no value apart from 
human needs, its value being determined by what it is 
worth to society. God loans it for use. And unless we 
use it in God’s appointed way we lose it. Here we are 
with talents and powers, with life itself and all the oppor- 
tunities it presents for service. What is your life? A 
stewardship or an ownership? Invest your life in such a 
way that it will yield a maximum return to Giver and 
recipient alike. 

If you want to put your life to the very best possible 
use, there is no calling like that of the ministry in which 
talents of every description may be utilized to greater ad- 
vantage than in some other vocation. In the average busi- 
ness enterprise men have to bury half their talents, 
whereas in the ministry there is not a single talent which 
will not find appropriate and useful exercise. Have you 
talents—capacities of heart, mind, and soul? Thank God 
for them and learn to use them, not for selfish ends, but 
rather in the interests of the Master’s kingdom. Have you 
a good speaking voice? Rejoice in using it, not for selfish 
gain by pleading the cause of wealthy clients, but learn to 
speak for God by pleading with the souls of men, so that 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 367 


the “day of wrath” may be a day of mercy. Have you 
powers of personality and the ability to lead others? If 
so, use them to draw men into the net of evangelic truth, 
and you will experience the joy of fishing for men’s souls. 
Have you executive and administrative ability? This gift 
can be a means of great blessing, if the one possessing it 
will consecrate the talent to the Church, and eventually he 
will find his place in the field of religious education, or in 
some executive or administrative capacity, where his gifts 
and special aptitudes will do the greatest good. But how 
will you administer the entrusted talent? To gratify some 
selfish ambition and make money at the expense of your 
Lord, or will you consecrate the gift to the glory of God 
and the welfare of your fellowmen? Have you a bright 
intellect or a philosophic mind? Never was the need 
greater than today for men of intellectual powers to cope 
with the serpentine wisdom of the foes of Christianity. 
Have you had a college education? Thank God for the 
opportunity. But how do you look upon your educational 
advantages? Asa means of getting on in the world or of 
helping your less fortunate brethren? Do you know that 
every talent, every ability, every gift which you have re- 
ceived is a trust from God and that you are accountable to 
him for the way in which you administer His goods? 
What you have received is not an asset which you may put 
down on the credit side of your personal account. It is a 
definite liability which you owe to your Master and to 
your fellowmen, because it is under these terms that you 
have been made a steward. You are the trustee of your 
Master’s property. He is the Creditor and you are the 
debtor. What you have received gratuitously must be 
given freely and invested not in your personal enterprises 
but in the Master’s business. To do that may mean the 
sacrifice of material prosperity, but what of it? Life— 
real life, the higher life—is not to be measured by earthly 


868 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


success ; it is the end of the present life-process that counts. 
To every faithful steward the Master’s “ Well done” will 
be a sufficient reward. O the joy of such a stewardship! 
Out of it will come a new wealth which is beyond human 
comprehension. 

In view of what has already been said, it will be super- 
fluous to add that we are stewards not only of spiritual 
blessings but also of material blessings. And yet, while 
there may be a disposition to accept the basis of steward- 
ship in spiritual matters, we are less prone to recognize the 
principle so far as our earthly goods are concerned. But 
why should we claim exemption for our earthly posses- 
sions? Is it because they are more valuable and real to us 
than spiritual realities? Our temporal possessions are by 
no means exempt, since they, too, may be used for the ex- 
tension of Christ’s kingdom. What are you doing with the 
Master’s temporal gifts? Are you saying to yourself, 
“These things are mine absolutely! This money is mine 
—this property is mine!” If you are, you still have to 
learn the lesson of Christian stewardship as it is taught in 
the Bible. We have seen that according to the Word of 
God our title to our temporal possessions is not absolute; 
mere possession is not ownership in the sense of absolute 
proprietorship. The Creator of the universe, who is the 
real Owner of all things, has merely given us a lease, good 
only for the average span of life, and then the summons 
will be, “ Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou 
mayest be no longer steward.” May whatever we have 
received be given us to bless others, and we shall be doubly 
blessed. 

Is the standard that we have set, too high for the average 
man? And is the Biblical idea of stewardship to be re- 
garded as an unattainable ideal for the present age? The 
standard is not too high, if we are Christians; nor is it 
beyond our reach, if we take Christ seriously enough. 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 369 


Did the members of the apostolic band belong to the super- 
man class? Were they angels and higher beings of some 
sort, or were they men like ourselves? Who were the 
original Twelve? They were men! Some of them, like 
Peter and John, to judge from their qualities of leadership, 
were above the average, perhaps. But the others were of 
the average type who did the following. Somebody has to 
do the following, and it is a matter to be thankful for, that 
by far the greater majority of these immortals were aver- 
age men. Their only claim to distinction is that, with the 
exception of Judas, they were all good followers of Jesus 
Christ, who called, trained, and commissioned them for the 
work of the ministry. To spread His kingdom among 
men, Jesus relied upon the chosen band and all His fol- 
lowers, to continue the work which He had begun. Those 
called are to be consecrated personalities in living contact 
with individuals. They must stamp upon individual minds 
and hearts the personal impress of their Master’s char- 
acter and message. The world is to be saved not by angels 
and higher beings, but by men; not by supermen, but by 
ordinary men—average men! God could save the world 
by the creative power of a divine fiat, if He chose, but re- 
demption proceeds along ethical lines. In the sphere of 
redemption He prefers to work in and through us. Souls, 
under God, are saved by human instrumentality. God 
works through men. The Old Testament has its prophets 
and the New its apostles. Thus the prophetic method of 
telling forth divine things becomes the permanent vehicle 
of conveying evangelic truth. In the fulness of time God’s 
supreme revelation to man is clothed in human form, and 
“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The In- 
carnation did not dispense with a human ministry. It es- 
tablished the apostolate and placed it on a permanent basis 
by forever consecrating human speech to the spiritnal 
needs of the race. And as a result of the teaching of 


870 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Christ and of the apostles, modern Christianity has its 
universal priesthood of believers—in theory at least. 
This, if taken seriously by every one who names the name 
of Christ, implies a universal obligation. The obligation 
to make Christ known is on all. Not a single man, woman 
or child is exempt from Christian service. Andrew, in 
bringing his brother to Jesus, is an example for universal 
imitation. All can imitate it. What we need is a Christ- 
loving heart and a tender concern for others’ welfare, and 
then we will go out, like Andrew and John, Philip, 
Matthew and Peter arid fish for men’s souls. The world 
needs men—apostolic men and missionaries with the spirit 
of Christ in them. 

Are you afraid of apostolic precedents? You say the 
apostles accomplished so much. True, but remember that 
Jesus made them what they are. They were men of hum- 
ble origin and average gifts, yet their names live, because 
of their association with the most outstanding Personality 
in all history. You, too, may share His company, if you 
will, and be inspired to do the very thing that makes you 
pause and hesitate. You say you cannot preach, and well 
you may. But if God wants you to be a preacher, you may 
depend upon the enabling power of the call to the ministry. 
The disciples were not able to preach when Jesus called 
them, but He taught them how after they obeyed the call 
and followed Him. Perhaps this is your real difficulty. 
The call has come and you have not obeyed it. You say 
you cannot be sure that you have received it. Why not? 
You say you lack the necessary qualifications. Did Peter 
feel qualified when he exclaimed, ‘‘ Depart from me for I 
am a sinful man, O Lord”? Jesus said unto him, “ Fear 
not; from now on thou shall take men alive.” What kind 
of a man was Peter? He was a good fisherman; that 
much is to be said in his favour. Nothing more? Yes; 
he was healthy and strong, courageous and pious. His 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 371 


education was nothing to boast of; it was of the average 
type, but he was open-minded and receptive to the truth. 
And last but not least, he had faith in Jesus Christ. 

Are these qualifications different from those a man of 
today might be expected to possess? Are you in poor 
health? That might be a disqualification. However, I 
hear you say it is not a question of health. Is it a ques- 
tion, then, of education? Did you leave high school and 
go to work while others went to college? If this is what 
makes you pause, let me say that a neglected educa- 
tion is no insuperable obstacle in any field of endeavour. 
It can be overcome, if at the age of twenty-five or thirty, 
or even of thirty-five or forty, you are still willing to learn 
and apply yourself to the task in hand. Have you a wil- 
ling mind and heart and a courageous faith in the Son of 
God? Will you launch out into the deep with Peter and 
the other disciples and do some exploring in the untried 
depths of faith? Are you anchored in Christ? If you are, 
you may plunge into the briny deep, pierce the unknown 
waves, and swim against the flow of adverse tides by the 
mighty strokes of a conquering faith. Trouble not your- 
self about future maintenance, if the Master calls to higher 
service. He will provide and shoals of fish will fill the 
net to the breaking point. Many a humble youth has gone 
forth from a poverty-stricken roof to be educated and 
trained for the ministry without enough money in his 
pocket to pay for the next meal, and yet somehow his tem- 
poral needs were met, either by relatives or through bene- 
ficiary aid received from the synodical board of ministerial 
education. And if he is a man of initiative he will fre- 
quently be able to earn his way through college and semi- 
nary. However, the Church is willing to help, if necessary, 
so that a poor student may give his undivided attention to 
his studies. 

The disciples, it will be noted, were chosen not for their 


872 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


natural qualifications, however important these may be in 
themselves; the choice proceeded along spiritual lines. 
‘The germ of faith was there, and Christ meant more to 
them than relatives, friends and possessions. That is why 
“they left all and followed Jesus.” Their consecration 
was complete, and hence they could concentrate on the 
higher work and succeed in it. They did not plough, 
under the inspiration of the moment, in the unfertile field 
of pious resolves, and then look back, hoping for a more 
convenient season, when they might throw in their all with 
Christ. Had Matthew- done that, and had he continued, 
for a while longer, to gather in the shekels, he might have 
been more entangled in his earthly affairs and worldly in- 
terests than ever before. But he met the supreme crisis of 
his life by instant obedience to the call of Jesus. Happy 
he, who recognizes the supreme and critical hour of his 
career when it comes, and meets it like a man. Not all 
Christians are called to the highest office nor is every one 
expected to enter the ministry, but all are called to some 
service. This does not mean that all Christian people 
should abandon their secular occupations, but when such 
a call comes, there is no excuse for parrying it. The call 
in that case is “ Now.” It may come again and again in 
the silent watches of the night, but if we neutralize and 
stifle the admonitions of an awakened conscience and kill 
the inner urge by plunging ourselves into business more 
zealously than ever before, the opportunity of a lifetime 
will be gone forever, and our lives will be like so many 
ciphers of flesh and blood in the scales of eternity. Do not 
temporize with the call of Christ, because you have made 
other plans for this life of yours. It is not for the steward 
to interfere with his Master’s plans. To a man of tempor- 
izing spirit, who finds it hard to detach himself from inter- 
ests lying nearest to his heart, Jesus says, “ Let the dead 
bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 373 


God.” The man pleads priority for a filial duty which he 
owes to his father,“ Suffer me first to go and bury my 
father.” According to Luke, Christ’s ministry in Perea 
was rapidly drawing to a close, aad not much time would 
be left for the instruction of prospective disciples. Jesus 
therefore reminds the young man that discipleship in his 
case would have to mean immediate training for service. 
The King’s business demands haste and takes precedence 
over the lesser duties of life, whether public or private. 
Those that are spiritually dead would be able to attend to 
the usual formalities of a protracted oriental funeral. 
Spiritual duties come first and he must follow Christ now 
or never, 

The one called must obey the call; this is the first lesson 
of discipleship. Reverence for parents dare not take 
precedence over the higher duty of serving God. If it 
does, it becomes idolatry, in which the preference is given 
to gods that we have set up in our own divided hearts. 
Oh, how much is missed in life through indecision and 
feebleness of resolve! How we cling to relatives and 
friends, to nets and boats, to shekels and business pros- 
pects and to our temporal possessions, when Christ is sum- 
moning us to higher service! How much happiness is 
forfeited through delay. There is no excuse for delay 
when Jesus calls. Procrastinating habits do not make 
good disciples. “ A double-minded man is unstable in all 
his ways.” A certain candidate for discipleship presented 
himself to Jesus, one day, saying, “ Lord, I will follow 
Thee; but let me first go bid them farewell that are at 
home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, 
having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit 
for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62). The man 
who swerves in his allegiance to the kingdom is like a 
would-be ploughman, trying to plough a field and looking 
backward at one and the same time. We cannot go for- 


3874 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ward and backward simultaneously. To go forward in 
the Christian life is one thing; to look back with secret 
longing on the old haunts that we have left behind, is 
another. It is either a case of going forward or back- 
ward. Whom will ye follow, God or Mammon? Anyone 
who tries to do both is unworthy of the privileges of 
Christian discipleship. 

Do the would-be disciples we have mentioned belong to 
a by-gone age? We have reason to think that there is 
something quite modern about them. We have seen more 
than one such life go practically the same road. Are they 
not typical of many would-be ministerial candidates, both 
in and out of college, who are halting between two opin- 
ions and drifting, as a consequence, in the current of their 
own earthly desires? When the Master calls to. them and 
says, “ Hither, after Me,” as the words literally mean, the 
answer is, “ Suffer me first to go and work off the debt 
which I have contracted during my college days.” But the 
divine Creditor replies, “ Does the debt which you owe to 
father, mother, brother, sister, friend.or business acquain- 
tance take precedence over the infinitely greater debt which 
you owe to God? Have I not been making vast loans to 
you all your life and even before you were born? What- 
ever course you take to meet the demands of Roman law, 
remember there is a higher law which you cannot ignore 
with impunity. It is necessary to pay one’s debts, and 
labour for the supply of physical wants, but there are other 
and higher responsibilities resting upon us. The debts we 
owe to one another are mere trifles in comparison to the 
debt we owe to God. The things of the kingdom come 
first. The emphasis on secondary things betrays a loss of 
the. sense of stewardship. A faithful steward will not 
enter business on his own account. To do so is to misap- 
propriate borrowed funds. The steward must devote him- 
self to the Master’s business, 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 375 


It is a common fallacy to suppose that if a man has a 
talent for business he ought in all cases to choose a busi- 
ness career. Many a high grade youth, attending high 
school conferences on life service, is advised by so-called 
vocational experts to choose business or law or medicine, 
if his aptitudes and inclinations run in that direction, and 
never a word is said, either by the boy or his adviser, about 
the claims of the Christian ministry. Unfortunately, many 
Christian people share the same erroneous view, and the 
consequence is that some of the best ministerial timber is 
lost to the Church. What would have happened to Peter 
and John and Matthew and a host of others, if they had 
attended a modern vocational conference? The Galilean 
fishermen, and especially the sons of Zebedee, would very 
likely have been told to continue in business and employ 
more hired servants. Matthew would probably have been 
told to stay in politics and keep on the right side of Cesar 
and of Herod Antipas. And what psychologist would 
have failed to recognize that Paul with his marvellous 
powers of concentration and native gifts would have made 
a good business man? What a colossal loss the Greco- 
Roman world would have sustained, if the disciples had 
remained in business, or if Paul had been side-tracked by 
ambitious parents or worldly-wise advisers! 

From a human standpoint the advice ordinarily given to 
young men by vocational experts is excellent as far as it 
goes, but it fails to take into account the factor of religion. 
Is there nothing to be said in favour of the enabling power 
of the call of Christ? Does a capacity for business inca- 
pacitate a man for the office of the ministry? Of our most 
successful home and foreign missionaries, some are men 
of undoubted business ability. Perhaps that is why they 
are all the more successful as fishers of men; they.at least 
have the advantage of being able to handle people. Peter 
was an excellent fisherman, as were also the sons of Zebe- 


3876 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


dee. Was that a disqualification? Did Jesus think so, or 
did it disqualify him for the higher art of fishing for men’s 
souls? Certainly not. Jesus could see deeper than our 
modern psychologists and vocational experts; He recog- 
nizes the transforming power of faith even in its faintest 
beginnings, and hence He spiritualizes and immortalizes 
the fishing industry by using it as an emblem and a type 
of that other service to which these men are called. Are 
you in the fishing business, my friend? Jesus comes to 
you and says, “I will teach you the higher art of taking 
men alive!’’ Are you a tax-gatherer in the employ of 
Cesar or some other master, who doles out to you his 
shekels? He says, “I will make you a steward of the 
King of kings and pay you in the pure gold of the king- 
dom.” Are you a carpenter and builder, like the Naza- 
rene? The Man of Galilee comes to you and says, “ I have 
living stones for you to build with, and I will make you a 
builder of living temples and heavenly mansions.” Are 
you a weaver or tent-maker, like the apostle Paul? Jesus 
says, ‘‘ Leave the loom ere the shuttle breaks the thread of 
life, and weave the loose ends of life into garments of 
righteousness for the heavenly tabernacle.” Are you a 
ploughman? He says, “ Learn to plough straight furrows 
in the fields of the kingdom and plenteous will be the har- 
vest. Look unto Me; never mind the relatives and friends 
you have left behind. Do not sell your divine birthright 
for a pottage of lentils, never mind the flesh-pots of Egypt 
or the Babylonian garment, which is not for you to wear. 
I have better things in store for you. And if I am appeal- 
ing to your better self, come and follow Me, and I will 
make your life pre-eminently worth while. If I have res- 
cued and saved you from the stagnant pools of your selfish 
endeavours, thank God for it and seek that you may be the 
means of saving others. Bear in mind that the work to 
which I am summoning you is not easy. Nothing in life 


THE CALL OF THE TWELVE 377 


is easy that is really worth while. Are you willing to for- 
sake all and follow Me? There is sure to be something in 
the way of obeying the call to discipleship. You have your 
earthly attachments, and you will, like the fishermen on the 
lake and the man in the toll-booth, have something to give 
up in following Me. Complete consecration will be needed, 
if you wish to enjoy the privileges of discipleship. Be 
prepared for this, and do not let some selfish interest chain 
you down to the lower self-centre, when you may climb to 
the lofty heights of Christian service.” 

But great is the power of covetousness. It is for this 
reason that men are unwilling to surrender everything 
that might hinder full service—everything that cannot be 
carried over and used in Christ’s kingdom. This accounts 
for the fact that the industrial classes are not furnishing 
their proportionate share of ministerial candidates. In the 
time of Jesus the ministry was recruited almost entirely 
from the industrial class. ‘Today, rural centres are fur- 
nishing a great many more men than our industrial centres. 
As Christ once summoned fishermen and toll-gatherers 
and weavers to leave their occupation to become fishers of 
men, so now He calls others, urging them to leave the 
ship, the desk, the spinning-mill, and the factory, to do His 
will in preaching the gospel. Why do so few respond? 
Because men are so absorbed in business of one kind or 
another that religion scarcely gets more than the left- 
overs of our time and our thought. Men find it hard to 
put God first, and business is developed at the expense of 
religion. To many, God is not even a close second. The 
modern business world blunts the edge of religion and 
makes dull our religious sensibilities. There is so much 
activity, but not of the right sort. There is neither con- 
secration nor concentration in matters of religion. If the 
pressing problems of today are to be solved, religion must 
become an actuality in the complex life of today. It must 


378 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


be a real power, a dynamic force, the one great motive 
which dominates and controls our lives. Then we shall be 
in a position to understand the apostle to the Gentiles, 
when he says, “ This one thing I do,” and be able to follow 
him in his glorious devotion to the cause of Christ. 

The things of the kingdom ought to be our first con- 
cern. Let us concentrate upon them with our whole heart. 
Merely playing around the periphery of religion is like so 
much beating of the air. Sham battles are not a sign of 
aggressive discipleship. Who but a would-be disciple, or 
a renegade, will refuse to follow the Master when the com- 
mand is, “ Hither! after Me!”? ‘To follow Christ and to 
catch the inspiration of His marvellous personality is an 
experience that puts real joy into a man’s religion. Such 
an experiment is worth trying. It is worth vastly more 
than it costs. Try it and experience the thrill of real 
discipleship. 


XII 


THE CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO THE 
GENTILES | 


Acts 9; 22; 26; GaLATIANS 1:16; 
I CorINTHIANS 9:1;15:8 


apostles of the first century. He is without doubt 

the foremost representative of Jesus Christ; next to 
Jesus Himself he is the ablest interpreter of the Christian 
religion, its most illustrious missionary, preacher, teacher, 
scholar and martyr. He has had a most remarkable in- 
fluence on the history of the apostolic age, and through St. 
Augustine and Luther he has set his mark upon medizval 
and modern Christianity. 

A careful study of the ever-increasing literature on the 
life and labours of the great missionary apostle reveals a 
twofold tendency. On the one hand, some writers seem 
to have a strong aversion for anything that savours of the 
supernatural in religion. They are prejudiced, in the name 
of science so-called, against anything that is outside and 
above the ordinary and the natural. Consequently one 
need not be surprised to find that wherever this prejudice 
prevails the attempt is made to explain Paul as the product 
of his environment. On the other hand, it cannot be de- 
nied that one frequently meets with just as one-sided a 
treatment in the opposite direction in some of the works on 
the life and letters of St. Paul. Writers of this class un- 
duly minimize, or pass by altogether, the influences of 
heredity or environment as if religious phenomena could 


379 


G evo OF TARSUS is the real primate among the 


3880 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


be best explained without regard to the political, social and 
religious background in which the man under consider- 
ation finds himself. Although time will not permit a thor- 
ough discussion of this broader aspect of the subject, some 
attention must be given to the life of St. Paul on its human 
side for the sake of a more comprehensive view of the man 
before his conversion. If there is a human and a divine 
side in the life of the God-man Himself, one can postulate 
no less in the life of His servant. The complex person- 
ality of the man and his remarkable contributions to Chris- 
tianity are the result of-his extraordinary endowments and 
native gifts, of his environment, and last but not least, of 
his wonderful Christian experience. His very birth with 
its religious heritage and political rights, his cosmopolitan 
atmosphere, his fanatical zeal for the religion of his fath- 
ers, his contacts with the despised followers of the Naza- 
rene, and his persecuting activity—all these are of some 
value to the apostle and his work, even if they do not 
explain his conversion to Christianity. 

Saul of Tarsus was a many-sided man. Whereas the 
other apostles were Aramaic Jews hailing for the most 
part from the hamlets and villages along the shores of the 
Sea of Galilee, Paul touched the outside world at many 
points. He was born in the city of Tarsus, the capital of 
the province of Cilicia, in Asia Minor. The geographical 
position of the city made it a centre of commercial enter- 
prise and political power. Located midway between the 
Kast and the West, it was the meeting-place more espe- 
cially of Greeks, Romans and Jews. Through the con- 
quests of Alexander the Great and the spread of Greek 
culture the oriental aspect of the town was changed to a 
cosmopolitan centre, exactly reproducing the mixed civili- 
zation of the age. Tarsus was a typical Hellenistic city, 
and although many languages were spoken by a mixed 
population, Greek was the official language here, as else- 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 381 


where in the Greco-Roman world from the time of Alex- 
ander the Great and his successors down to the Cesars. 
Under the influence of Greek culture a great university 
was established, outranking in some respects that of 
Athens and Alexandria. Paul was a citizen of no mean 
city, which certainly made some contribution to his intel- 
lectual, social and political life. There is no evidence to 
show that he attended the university, which was a seat of 
Stoic philosophy. No Hellenistic Jew of the Pharisaic 
order would permit his own son to matriculate in a Gentile 
school. While Gentile influences entered into the forma- 
tive period of his life, Greek ideas and Greek culture do 
not explain his Damascus experience. Christianity is not 
a philosophy but an experience of spiritual realities. His 
conception of the Christian religion is independent of Hel- 
lenism. Nor does the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Tarsus 
and the broad outlook of Roman imperialism explain the 
universalism of Paul’s message to the Gentile world. In 
our humble opinion he was more powerfully affected and 
influenced in this respect by the universalism of the proph- 
ets, such as Isaiah 40-66 and certain passages in the 
Psalms, than by the universalism of Hellenic culture or 
the political ideals of Rome. If world-wide political unity 
could have given birth to a world-wide religion, Hellenic 
“Zeus” (the Latin “ Jupiter”) or the Roman emperor 
worship of a later period would have reduced Christianity 
to a Jewish sect or perhaps crushed it altogether for its 
refusal to burn incense to the glory of the Roman empire. 
All that the Greecc-Roman civilization did for Christianity 
was to prepare the way for the coming of a world-wide 
religion. 

As a citizen of a self-governing Roman metropolis, Saul 
of Tarsus was a citizen of the Roman world. He was 
born a Roman citizen, the right of citizenship having been 
conferred either upon his father or one of his ancestors. 


382. THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


What that right involved is not certain, but to judge from 
the use made of it by the apostle it carried with it protec- 
tion against the injustice of local magistrates and the 
caprice of municipal law. 

But a free-born Roman citizen would also have a Roman 
name. In fact, it was usual for both Palestinian and for- 
eign Jews to have two names. Such compounds often had 
a similar sound as, for instance, in Acts 13:9, where men- 
tion is made of “ Saul who was also called Paul.” Atten- 
tion is called to the ludicrous meaning of the name Saul or 
Saulos in Greek, and hence the substitution of Paul for 
Saul in Hellenistic circles. According to others, the name 
by which the apostle was known to his Gentile converts 
was derived from the Latin paulus, in the sense of “ little 
of stature,” or “least among the apostles.” 

The question as to whether Paul, the Roman citizen, 
acquired some knowledge of Latin during his boyhood 
days in Tarsus must be answered in the negative. Greek 
and not Latin was the language of daily intercourse among 
the people of Tarsus. There can be no doubt that he 
could speak Greek in his boyhood days. We no longer 
think of the Greek in the Pauline Epistles as a Jewish- 
Greek jargon. According to the most recent scholar- 
ship, the apostle uses the language in such masterly 
fashion that he must have become familiar with it in 
very early life. 

Birth in a distinguished university town and Roman citi- 
zenship bring Paul into early connection with the world at 
large. But the Greco-Roman or Hellenistic influences of 
his early surroundings are only a part of his equipment. 
It is well to remember that he was not only born in Greek- 
speaking Tarsus, but also in an orthodox Jewish home, 
where the Aramaic language of the homeland was not a 
dead language as yet. The son of strict Jewish parents, 
who kept up their connections with the land of the fathers, 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 383 


used both Aramaic and Greek in childhood. Aramaic was 
his mother-tongue and the rudiments of the language had 
already been acquired by the time he became a pupil of 
Gamaliel. 

Saul of Tarsus, then, was born in a bilingual home, 
where piety was hereditary. It was located, not in the 
Gentile quarters of the city, but in the Jewish colony con- 
stituting, as it were, a city within a city, separate and dis- 
tinct in many ways from the world without. To be sure, 
the colony was looked upon as part of the city, whose 
members, in Tarsus at least, were on a par politically with 
the Gentile population. While the Hebrews in Tarsus felt 
in no small degree the influence of the larger world in 
which they lived, it was comparatively easy for them to 
preserve the Hebrew side of their life along with the ordi- 
nary duties of citizenship. They had settled here possibly 
for business reasons or else to escape persecution at the 
hands of over-zealous conquerors who wanted to hasten 
the Hellenizing process, substituting the Greek language 
and Greek culture for Aramaic and the religion of Juda- 
ism, But along with their zeal for business, they assem- 
bled for worship on the Sabbath in the synagogue, which 
was the centre of the religious life in the community. The 
Jewish synagogue, which as an institution dates back to 
the Babylonian exile, was an effective protest against the 
debasing image-worship of pagan polytheism. Its services 
were very simple and included prayer, the reading of the 
law and the prophets, the translation of the Hebrew 
Scripture lesson into the colloquial Greek or the current 
Aramaic, some running comments or hortatory remarks 
(sermon) and the benediction. The pious Jew, though 
outwardly a Hellenist, continued to serve the God of his 
fathers in the land of his adoption. Gentile citizenship 
might be his, but for all that he felt like an alien in a 
strange land. He retained the warmest affection for Zion 


384 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


and its temple and kept in close touch with the mother- 
community at Jerusalem. 

Saul’s father belonged to the Judaism of the Dispersion. 
This dispersion had begun with the Assyrian conquests 
and had been furthered by Greek rulers, notably by the 
Ptolemies of Egypt and later by the Romans. The re- 
markable thing about many of these scattered Jewish com- 
munities is that they managed to preserve their identity, 
thanks to their clannishness and the tenacity of their re- 
ligious beliefs. The day of the Assyro-Babylonian had 
passed, as had that ofthe Persian and of the Greek, who 
put his cultural impress upon other peoples to a degree 
shared by no other nationality. The prevailing culture of 
the world was Greek, and though the day of the Roman 
with his genius for government would pass, too, the Jew, 
with his veneer of Hellenic culture, generally remained a 
Jew at heart. He belonged to a peculiar people, conscious 
of the world mission of the religion of the Hebrews. In 
cities like Tarsus the protecting isolation of the Jewish 
colony enabled these settlers to keep intact the essential ele- 
ments of their rich religious heritage. This meant much 
to men like the father of young Saul. The former was a 
Pharisee, as was also his father before him. 

There can be no doubt but that Paul’s home in Tarsus 
was thoroughly Jewish. It was presided over by a man 
who was much attached to Pharisaic traditions and ob- 
servances. As an adherent of the strictest theological 
party among the Jews, he would follow the time-honoured 
custom of praying and walking with broad phylacteries, 
Undoubtedly he was most scrupulous and exact in the 
exercise of religion, whether in the home or the synagogue. 
No mention is made of his wife, but everything seems to 
indicate that she was a woman of piety and character, 
possessing those finer qualities which enter into the warp 
and woof of a real pious home. She must have been a 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 385 


remarkable mother to give bitth to such a son and have a 
part in his early education. His Hebrew name reflects the 
religious tone of his early surroundings. The new-born 
child is regarded as an answer to prayer. Saul is the 
“asked-for,” the “ desired” of the Lord. In accordance 
with Jewish custom, he received this name when he was 
circumcised on the eighth day. The name, though strongly 
reminiscent of the hero of the tribe of Benjamin, was a 
proof not so much of loyalty to the tribe of Benjamin, to 
which the father belonged, as of loyalty to the religious 
heritage of the past, jointly preserved by Judah and Ben- 
jamin. Though born in Tarsus, he is nevertheless an 
Israelite and a Hebrew. He is a Jew both in nationality 
and education. Pharisaic parentage in his case implies 
that the home training in Tarsus would be of a religious 
character. In place of the modern cradle song, he heard 
from his mother’s lips the stories of the Old Testament. 
The heroes of his young imagination were not Hercules 
(“Jack the Giant Killer”) and Cesar Augustus, but 
Abraham and Joseph, the giant figure of Moses, the prow- 
ess of Samson, the military exploits of Saul and David, 
and we rather suspect that his little ears would take in 
with special interest the historical narrative of his own 
namesake, who was the first king of Israel. He learned 
by heart, at a tender age, many passages of Scripture. 
Among these were Psalms of praise and adoration 
(Psalms 113-118) and passages like Deuteronomy 6: 4-9. 
At the age of six, or thereabouts, he would go to his “ vine- 
yard,” as the rabbis called the Jewish synagogue school. 
Doubtless there could be found in Tarsus one or more such 
schools. The medium of instruction was Greek, and the 
Greek version of the Old Testament was used. But as the 
average rabbi could read the ancient Hebrew, the pupil 
also learned to read many parts of the Hebrew Scriptures 
in the original. Some time before the age of thirteen, 


3886 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


when by a sort of “confirmation ” the scholar became a 
“son of the commandment,” a beginning was made to 
acquaint this prospective “son of the law” with some of 
the sayings of famous Jewish rabbis and their interpreta- 
tions of Scripture. 

But the education of the growing boy was not deemed 
complete without a trade of some kind. According to the 
Talmud, a threefold duty devolved upon the head of every 
household, “It is incumbent upon the father to circumcise 
his son, to teach him the law and to teach him some occu- 
pation.” As it was the duty of every father to teach his 
son a trade, young Saul learned how to make tents. These 
were made either out of the hair or the skins of the 
Angora goats, which browsed over the hills of Cilicia and 
other parts of Asia Minor. Whether Saul became a 
weaver or a tanner, or both, is not entirely clear. 

His occupation, whatever it was, renders it improbable 
that he left Cilicia for Jerusalem before the age of twelve 
or fifteen. In Acts 22:3 the words, “I was brought up in 
this city at the feet of Gamaliel,” simply indicate that he 
went to Jerusalem at an early age. Probably this was his 
first visit to the Holy City, now that he had attained the 
legal age. He had a sister living there. This may have 
facilitated his going to “college.” Perhaps he stayed at 
the home of this married sister during his student days in 
Jerusalem (Acts 23:16). The early home training in 
Tarsus and the local synagogue teaching were now to be 
supplemented by a more thoroughgoing and systematic 
course of theological instruction in the highly esteemed 
rabbinical college of Gamaliel. Young Saul wanted to 
become a rabbi, that is, a minister, a teacher, and a law- 
yer all in one. And he had come to the right place, for 
the grandson of Hillel was the most renowned rabbi of 
the age. 

Saul entered upon his studies in rabbinical theology, 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 3887 


attaining great proficiency in his knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures and the traditions of the fathers. While the cur- 
riculum also included a number of secular subjects, the 
principal themes of study were the Mosaic law and the 
voluminous commentaries of the scribes. Instruction in 
the classroom was mostly oral. A passage from the He- 
brew Bible would be taken as a text and as the classical 
Hebrew had long since passed out of common use, the 
passage was translated into Aramaic, a kindred dialect 
spoken by the Jews of Palestine and by nearly all Jews in 
addition to the Greek. Various interpretations were given. 
Many of these were very fanciful indeed, as they were 
based for the most part on the allegorical method. Much 
weight was attached to ancient authorities, chiefly scribes 
and Pharisees, whose comments were quoted and dis- 
cussed. Stories, anecdotes, riddles and parables were all 
woven into the themes under consideration. In the free- 
for-all discussion, which was a part of the regular class- 
room work, scholars were allowed to ask questions as well 
as the teacher. Frequently the latter would base his teach- 
ing on the replies given. This question-and-answer 
method was used to good effect in sharpening the wits of 
the students. Questions were put and then debated by the 
disputants in the form of dialogue. This form of mental 
gymnastics did much for students, like Paul, to develop 
the art of disputation and the power of ready speech. 
With his alert mind, how he must have enjoyed these dis- 
cussions in the classroom of Gamaliel, the master teacher ! 

Centuries before this a class of men, known as the 
scribes, and having no priestly connections whatsoever, 
had devoted themselves to the study and interpretation of 
the written law as found in the Pentateuch and the tradi- 
tions or unwritten laws, called the Halacha. An attempt 
was made, on the basis of these two sources, to regulate 
and define in every particular the lives of individuals and 


888 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the services of the temple. Naturally, rules and regula- 
tions of all sorts multiplied without number to meet chang- 
ing conditions. It was the business of the scribes to search 
the Scriptures and oral traditions for hooks upon which to 
hang an endless chain of precepts and rules, covering every 
possible emergency. Emendations to existing rules and 
practices were first submitted for approval to the San- 
hedrin or Jewish senate, this being the chief legislative 
body for all Jews everywhere. 

Those who were specially interested in legalistic inter- 
pretations of Scripture gathered in schools conducted by 
eminent rabbis. In Paul’s time two rival schools were to 
be found in Jerusalem. One of these had been founded 
by Hillel and the other by Shammai. In the school of 
Hillel, now presided over by the celebrated Gamaliel, the 
accumulated traditions of the past were put on a plane 
with Scripture itself, while in the school of Shammai the 
authority of tradition was rejected and only the Mosaic 
law was recognized as authentic and binding. The follow- 
ers of Shammai were the enlightened “naturalists” of 
their day who denied the doctrine of the resurrection. 
This reminds us of the Sadducees in the Gospels, who as 
a matter of fact attended the school of Shammai, whereas 
the school of Hillel was patronized by the Pharisees, a 
name which signifies the Separated. The prevailing tend- 
ency of Pharisaism was to separate the religion of Judaism 
from outside influences by erecting a wall of legalism 
around it. ‘The rock upon which the national life was to 
be built was a life of legal righteousness. This was the 
ideal of Gamaliel’s school and formed an indispensable 
part of the curriculum. Some writers on the life of Paul 
grow unduly enthusiastic about the broadmindedness and 
tolerant spirit of Gamaliel as if this quality of mind had 
much to do with the universalism of Paul’s gospel. It is 
true that he stood up in the council and protested against 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 389 


the violence of the Sadducees towards the apostles (Acts 
5:34). But there is reason to think that Gamaliel’s pro- 
test on this occasion was prompted not so much by his 
breadth of view as by political considerations. It will be 
remembered that the doctrine of the resurrection which | 
the apostles had been preaching was exceedingly obnox- 
ious to the Sadducees (Acts 4:2; compare 23: 6-10) and 
not at all antagonistic to Pharisaic teaching. As Gamaliel 
was a member of the Pharisaic party, this was no quarrel 
of his. A Pharisee, moreover, would in the very nature 
of the case look with disfavour upon any measure spon- 
sored by a Sadducee. And finally nothing is said any- 
where that Gamaliel at a later day raised a restraining 
hand to save Stephen, who had attacked with great bold- 
ness the Pharisees themselves. The extravagant idea some 
men have of Gamaliel’s broad sympathies cannot be 
substantiated. 

Gamaliel was at heart a Pharisee, who believed that the 
scrupulous observance of every detail of the Jewish law 
was the only way to be saved. His teaching was that of 
the most rigid of all the Jewish sects and bore its natural 
fruit in the persecuting career of his most distinguished 
pupil, who followed the Pharisaic conception of religion to 
its logical conclusion. Religion was a law to be observed 
in outward life. Its infraction would be sure to arouse 
the antagonism of a man trained and steeped in the legal- 
ism of the Pharisees. Merely to hint at the possibility that 
the Mosaic law might be superseded some day by a more 
spiritual conception of religion would be nothing short of 
sacrilege. A consistent Pharisee is bound to look upon the 
followers of the crucified Nazarene, who had attacked the 
Pharisaic ideal of the Messiah, as traitors to the religion of 
Judaism. If Jesus of Nazareth had been Israel’s Messiah, 
so he argued, He could not have died the cursed death of 
the cross. The Messiah is destined to live and reign. 


390 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Therefore the Messiahship of Jesus is disproved by His 
death and burial. To teach otherwise is to make mockery 
of the Jewish religion. The missionary zeal of these 
Nazarenes must be stopped immediately, if Judaism is to 
survive. Before very long Judaism, with its world- 
mission, will be reduced to an insignificant sect, unless 
something is done to prevent it. This emergency calls for 
drastic action. To Saul’s way of thinking, persecution 
under such circumstances is a supreme duty. The fierce 
persecuting zeal of the young jurist trained in the legalism 
of Gamaliel’s school of theology is the natural outcome of 
his watchful enthusiasm and zeal for the law. 

How long Saul continued his studies under Gamaliel is 
not known. He may have left Jerusalem after completing 
his rabbinical education in order to undertake some prac- 
tical work in one of the many synagogues of the Disper- 
sion. He seems to have been absent from Jerusalem 
during the public ministry of Jesus. The passage in II Co- 
rinthians 5:16 is thought by some to indicate that Paul 
had seen Jesus in the days of His flesh. But a proper 
translation of the verse renders this more than unlikely. 
The apostle is contrasting the Jewish idea of a political 
Messiah of the fleshly type with the spiritual conception 
of the Christian. He says, “ Though (as Jews) we have 
known a Messiah of the fleshly type, yet now (as Chris- 
tians) we know such a Messiah no more.” ‘The Christian 
Messiah is no nationalistic Christ. He is the fulfiller of 
the world-mission of Israel. 

The young Cilician either returned to Jerusalem after 
the death of Jesus or else began his studies under Gamaliel 
about that time. Our information concerning Saul’s resi- 
dence in Jerusalem is very meagre. We meet the brilliant 
young rabbi in Acts 7:58, keeping guard over the gar- 
ments of those who took the lead in the stoning of Stephen, 
“And Saul was consenting unto his death” (Acts 8:1). 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 391 


What Pharisee could endure the stinging rebuke of a 
speech like that of Stephen in the council chamber! Who 
could fail to see the trend of it? It really amounted to a 
declaration of war on existing institutions! Saul was 
among the very first to accept the challenge. He was dead 
in earnest about it. With him religion was a matter of life 
and death. He saw that Christianity meant to supplant 
Judaism. This aggressive spokesman of the seditious sect 
must die! And now that he is dead, loyalty to Jewish in- 
stitutions demands that all those sympathizing with 
Stephen must perish also. The fires of religious hatred 
had been kindled in the breast of every loyal son of the 
law. Judaism was fighting for its very existence. 

To the young Pharisee, who saw what was at stake, 
there was no worthier task to which he might devote his 
life than that of persecuting the Christians. From the 
martyrdom of Stephen onward, Saul became the active 
agent of a well-planned and organized system of persecu- 
tion. He threw himself wholeheartedly and most reli- 
giously into the bloody work, raging like a wolf in the 
Christian fold and scattering believers far and wide. His 
persecuting zeal was rewarded in all probability with a 
seat in the ruling council of the Jews, where we find him 
soon afterwards, probably at the age of thirty, giving his 
vote against the Christians. “There was a great persecu- 
tion against the Church which was at Jerusalem. ... As 
for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering the 
houses and haling men and women committed them to 
prison. . . . And when they were put to death, I gave my 
vote against them fe CActs: 81433926010) .:. Saullisithe 
acknowledged leader and champion of aggressive Phari- 
saism, waging what he believes to be a righteous war 
against the Nazarenes. From his point of view the Chris- 
tians have blasphemed the name of the God of Israel in 
speaking lightly of the Mosaic law and the temple with its 


392 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ceremonial worship. Outwardly they worship Jehovah 
and observe the law, but is it right to regard them as wor- 
shippers of the one true God, when they also worship the 
Man of Nazareth at their weekly gatherings ? 

The young zealot by his contact with the Pharisees, 
whose piety had been so daringly challenged and con- 
demned by the Prophet of Nazareth, certainly must have 
known that Jesus had been a man of about his own age, 
who instead of sitting at the feet of the wise in recognized 
schools of learning was only a village mechanic with no 
educational advantages like his own. Was it not the con- 
sensus of opinion among men of ability and authority that 
this self-styled teacher went up and down the land making 
preposterous claims? ‘That such a one should be esteemed 
the Messiah of the Jews and worshipped as if He were 
divine, is rank idolatry. This raised a storm of indigna- 
tion in the heart of the studious young man. His studies 
in the Pentateuch gave a certain Scriptural warrant for the 
hostile attitude which was fast approaching a state of 
frenzy. Passages like Deuteronomy thirteen seemed to fit 
the present case. Here the obligation is laid on all pious 
Jews to pursue, even to the remotest cities, any or all 
Israelites who entice others to serve other gods. To perse- 
cute these renegades from the faith is a meritorious act 
of service to God. Saul will be chief of persecutors; he 
will kill the Christians and save Judaism. “ Beyond meas- 
ure’ did he persecute the Church of God (Gal. 1:13). 
The young zealot ‘“ was exceedingly mad against them ” 
(Acts 26:11). He is no ordinary man. When he loves, 
he loves intensely, but he is also capable of hating to the 
uttermost. What he believes, he believes with all his 
heart, and when he decides upon a course of action it must 
be carried through with all the vigour of an intensive soul 
bent on doing just one thing and doing it well. He cannot 
content himself with half-measures. His recent successes 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 393 


in the Judean capital are only the beginning of a relentless 
war on the Nazarene heretics, whom he hates with a per- 
fect hatred. He is not the man to limit the work of perse- 
cution to Jerusalem and Judza. Whatever he does must 
be done thoroughly. Not satisfied with the results already 
achieved, he pursues the objects of his hatred to their dis- 
tant hiding-places. He “ persecuted them even unto for- 
eign cities” (Acts 26:11). This was rendered possible 
by the authority exercised by the Sanhedrin in matters of 
religion over the scattered Jews in foreign countries. 
Leaving to others the less hazardous work of persecution 
in Judzea, Samaria and Galilee (Acts 9:31), Saul turned 
his attention to Damascus. 

To reach his present objective would require a week’s 
journey from Jerusalem by the usual caravan route, 
though the actual distance between the two cities was only 
a hundred and thirty-three miles as the crow flies. Like 
a snorting war-horse, eager to pursue the foe, Saul 
“breathed threatening and slaughter ” against the follow- 
ers of Jesus whom he regarded as a false Messiah (9:1). 
Having secured the necessary credentials from the San- 
hedrin, empowering him to persecute and arrest the scat- 
tered disciples, he and an armed company of temple-guards 
set out for Damascus in the hope of taking as prisoners to 
Jerusalem any Christians he might find in the large Jewish 
colony of the Syrian capital with its powerful synagogues. 
But instead of leading back his captives to Jerusalem, the 
devouring wolf was suddenly taken captive near the gates 
of Damascus and converted into a lamb by the Shepherd 
of the persecuted flock. How was this brought about? 
What had happened on the way? “Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin or the leopard his spots?”’ Can a perse- 
cuting Pharisee become a believing Christian? Not on 
natural grounds. Only a miracle of grace can account for 
the fact that the most learned of the apostles was a con- 


394 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


verted Pharisee. There is an unexplained something in 
every genuine conversion, which defies historical analysis. 

One might spend considerable time in tracing the prob- 
able course of Saul’s journey, beginning at Jerusalem and 
proceeding northward along the Roman road running 
through Shechem and Bethshean, and then crossing the 
Tordan near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, and 
thence by gradual stages to the bare, undulating plain of a 
high plateau leading to Damascus, the queen of the desert. 
We might also go to some length in delineating the sur- 
passing beauty of the lahdscape which bursts upon the eye 
of the weary traveller as he approaches from the south the 
oasis of Damascus, blossoming like a rose under the trans- 
forming influence of the waters of Abana and of Pharpar. 
But the outward features and circumstances of the perse- 
cutor’s journey, however interesting they may be in them- 
selves, do not explain how the apostle of the Jews became 
an apostle of Jesus Christ. The narrative of the conver- 
sion, as related in Acts 9, 22, and 26, makes no mention of 
external details such as these: apparently they have little 
or nothing to do with the Damascus experience. There is 
not the slightest indication in any of the three accounts 
that the physical background of the scene we are contem- 
plating had any contribution to make to the turning-point 
in Paul’s career, so vividly described by him, in his speech 
before King Agrippa. The story of his conversion, though 
familiar to many of us from our youth, is worth repeating, 
as it is our best evidence of what really occurred on the 
way to Damascus. We shall quote in a moment the 
graphic account of the event as recorded in Acts 26: 12-23, 
This famous oration was delivered at the court of Festus 
shortly after the arrival of the Jewish king, who had come 
to Cesarea to pay his respects to the new imperial pro- 
curator. Taking advantage of Agrippa’s visit to secure an 
Opinion on a matter which gave him no small concern, 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 395 


Festus sent for the man who had appealed his case to 
Cesar. Attended by two soldiers, Paul the prisoner enters 
the judgment-hall and receives permission to testify in his 
own behalf, so that the procurator might know the facts 
of the case before writing to Nero. 

After a few preliminary remarks the prisoner calls at- 
tention to his early career in order to lead up to the great 
turning-point in his life, incidentally making plain to his 
audience that his imprisonment is due solely to the na- 
tional prejudices of the Jews against the preaching of a 
gospel which is not distinctively Jewish in its aims and 
methods. He then proceeds to give an account of his con- 
version while on a mission of persecution to Damascus. 
In this connection he makes the solemn declaration, say- 
ing, “Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with au- 
thority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, 
O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven above the 
brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them 
that journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to 
the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew 
dialect, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard 
(or “will be hard”) for thee to kick against goads. 
And I said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I 
am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon 
thy feet, for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to ap- 
point thee a minister and a witness both of the things 
which thou hast seen, and of the things wherein I will 
appear unto thee; delivering thee out [of the hands] of the 
[Jewish] people and of the Gentiles, unto whom I send 
thee, to open their eyes, that thou mayest turn them from 
darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that 
they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance 
among them that have been sanctified by faith in Me. 
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto 
the heavenly vision; but announced first to them in Da- 


3896 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


mascus and then at Jerusalem and throughout all the 
coasts of Judea and to the Gentiles that they should re- 
pent and turn to God, doing works befitting their repen- 
tance. For this cause some Jews seized me in the temple 
and tried to kill me. Having therefore obtained the help 
that cometh from God I stand unto this day, testifying to 
both small and great, saying nothing beyond what the 
prophets and Moses did say should come to pass; (and 
thereby answer such questions as) whether the Christ was 
subject to suffering (and) whether He as (the) first by a 
resurrection from the.dead should proclaim light both to 
the (Jewish) people and to the Gentiles.” 

The chief event in the life of Paul is his conversion. It 
is the main root of his whole Christian experience—the 
great pivotal fact upon which everything turns. It forms 
the chief date of his life, and marks an important epoch in 
the religious history of mankind. The Church, recogniz- 
ing the epoch-making character of the event, has been 
celebrating for centuries this spiritual birthday of the 
apostle, assigning the twenty-fifth of January for its ob- 
servance. In the selection of the days for other saints and 
martyrs the practice prevailed of celebrating the day of 
martyrdom, when they entered on their real life. But in 
the case of the apostle it was the incident of the conversion 
rather than his martyrdom when his true life began in a 
very real sense. The exact date of this “ birthday ” is un- 
known. That there should be a wide latitude of opinion 
on the subject is only natural in view of the meagre data 
at our disposal. Many scholars, like Harnack, McGiffert, 
Moffatt, Keim and Renan, place the date of Saul’s conver- 
sion within a year or two of the death of Jesus; others 
argue for a later date. All that we are tolerably certain 
about is that Paul’s conversion occurred shortly after the 
martyrdom of Stephen, while the former was on a per- 
secuting mission to Damascus. However, there will be 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 397 


general agreement in placing the Damascus experience 
somewhere in the first decade after the crucifixion. Obvi- 
ously this would make Paul anywhere from one to ten 
years younger than Jesus. 

The exact spot where Paul was converted is also a mat- 
ter of debate. Some place the scene half a mile or so from 
the south gate on the road to Jerusalem, while others locate 
it ten miles away at the village of Kaukab, where the trav- 
eller from the south obtains his first view of Damascus. 
But why should we be more anxious to determine the site 
of the conversion than was Paul, when he faced his distin- 
guished audience at Czsarea? After a few introductory 
remarks, skilfully chosen for the occasion, he goes straight 
to the heart of the matter by explaining that it was when 
he drew near to Damascus that he saw the light of a new 
and glorious day, breaking down the walls of Jewish ex- 
clusiveness and throwing wide open to the nations of the 
earth the gates of the eternal kingdom, for the world’s 
Messiah had arrived on the scene. He does emphasize, 
before proceeding with his account of the conversion, the 
persecution which preceded it in order to suggest to the 
minds of his hearers the obvious fact that to change the 
course of such a determined persecutor required a very 
real and adequate cause. It soon becomes apparent to 
those listening to the thrilling narrative that what the apos- 
tle is describing must have been a most extraordinary oc- 
currence, the irony of the embarrassed Jewish king and 
the ridicule of Festus notwithstanding ; indeed, the latter’s 
exclamation of surprise proves that Paul was by no means 
describing a natural event. Since the apostle spoke in 
Greek, the imperial procurator did not need to be well 
versed in Jewish customs and questions of religion to catch 
the idea that Paul was speaking not of a natural but of a 
supernatural light presenting to his startled gaze the resur- 
rected, glorified body of the reputed King of the Jews 


898 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


whom the Romans had crucified. A heavenly vision! 
That was startling enough, but a resurrection from the 
dead! The man must be insane to speak of such things. 
No, Paul is not beside himself, but simply trying to give a 
truthful account of what actually took place near Damas- 
cus. He is merely giving utterance to “words of truth 
and soberness,”’ when he says that the light which he saw 
was no ordinary light. Its brilliance exceeded anything he 
had ever seen. And so the best that he can do is to com- 
pare it to the full-orbed sun of a cloudless day. It was so 
luminous and bright that it could be seen above the bright- 
ness of the sun at high noon. This light was strong 
enough to be recognized even in the bright sunlight. Paul 
says that it was a light from heaven, brighter than the 
noonday sun. ‘This implies that the sky was clear at the 
time and that the light referred to was not a flash of light- 
ning produced by an electric storm. A bolt from the clear 
at midday flashing through the translucent atmosphere of 
an eastern sky, or even a lightning flash on a cloudy day 
at high noon could hardly be said to exceed the brightness 
of a scorching, merciless, oriental sun. 

To Paul’s audience the comparison of the light with the 
brilliance of the sun could mean but one thing, and that is, 
that he had in mind the supernatural character of the light. 
As the narrative proceeds it develops that it is a divine 
light reflecting the glory of the risen and exalted Christ. 
Stunned and blinded by the dazzling light, Paul fell pros- 
trate before this irresistible manifestation of the divine 
glory. What its effect was upon his companions we do not 
know beyond the fact that they, too, saw the light and 
fell to the ground, unable for a while to speak or move. 
“ They remained speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no 
man” (9:7). The vision was not for them any more 
than the message which accompanied it. Consequently we 
are prepared to find that although they saw the light and 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 399 


heard the sound, they neither saw the radiant figure of a 
man, nor could they comprehend the meaning of the words 
that were spoken. The voice of the heavenly Speaker 
(9: 4-6; 22: 7-10; 26: 14-18) was to them but an inarticu- 
late sound. The statement that they “saw no man” im- 
plies that the prostrate persecutor did see some one. That 
the celestial light was not a mere radiance but the heavenly 
form and countenance of the risen Lord was gradually re- 
vealed to him. For the moment, he could not tell who it 
was that he saw, for Jesus was the last Person in all the 
world he expected to see. All that he heard at first was a 
voice saying to him in the vernacular Aramaic, “ Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to 
kick against goads.” What a startling announcement! 
Who is speaking? Is it an angel from the realms of light 
or the voice of a departed spirit? Surely it was not Jeho- 
vah, the God of Israel, that was speaking, for he was con- 
scious of no wrong in persecuting the Christians. If this 
was a divine manifestation, and there was every indica- 
tion that it was, Saul had reason to expect that God was 
about to honour him with a special commission to extermi- 
nate the Nazarenes. All along he had been looking upon 
his fanatical persecution as the crowning act of his life. 
Was it not out of regard for the true religion that he had 
adopted his present course? Surely there must be some 
mistake. But he cannot escape the accusing voice; he 
recognizes it as divine and he begins to feel that the im- 
plied rebuke is meant for him. Can it be true that in per- 
secuting these people he had really been injuring himself 
more than he knew and kicking, as it were, against the 
goads of the divine Ploughman, who had called a sudden 
halt by felling the ox-like persecutor who was devastating 
the choicest part of the vineyard? Never in all his life 
had the possibility occurred to him that He whom he had 
blasphemed should be the Son of God. Still failing to 


400 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


recognize either the voice or the Person that is speaking, 
the terror-stricken man now asks, “ Who art Thou, 
Lord?” and receives the answer, “I am Jesus whom thou 
persecutest.” 

What a terrible shock it must have been to the perse- 
cutor to learn that he had been fighting against God. This 
unmistakable reference to the name of Jesus cuts right 
across the line of Saul’s prejudices and feelings. It was 
this name above all names that he loathed and hated. He 
knew what the rabbis and chief priests thought of the 
name. But since the bearer of the despised name is dead, 
he will persecute to the death every worshipper of the 
name of Jesus. It must have come to him with powerful 
surprise to learn that Jesus was alive and that in the eyes 
of heaven his persecuting mission, though directed in the 
present instance against the Christians of Damascus, was 
really aimed at Jesus Himself. As in Matthew 25: 40 and 
elsewhere, so here, Jesus identifies Himself with His fol- 
lowers (compare Isa. 63:9). Saul is given to understand 
that he had been persecuting Jesus in His disciples. But 
the idea of the solidarity or oneness of the believer with 
the object of his faith was hardly new to a follower of 
the Hebrew religion. Nevertheless there was something 
totally new in the answer which he had received to his 
question. Formerly the general truth which the words 
declare had no meaning to the persecutor, so far as the 
Christians were concerned. To him the man he had been 
persecuting did not exist. He was a dead impostor who 
had been crucified as a criminal. His ignominious fate 
shows that the man was a deceiver, and the only applica- 
tion of the principle of solidarity in the case of these stub- 
born confessors that Saul would recognize was that they 
must share the fate of their dead Messiah. All this, how- 
ever, is now changed by the appearance of the living 
Christ, who is identical with the historic Jesus of Naza- 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 401 


reth. Jesus was not dead, as he had thought, but alive and 
enthroned as the Son of God with all the powers of divine 
omnipotence. 

Suddenly there bursts upon his consciousness the awful 
truth that when he struck at the disciples he was really 
striking at his Master. At last it was perfectly clear what 
was meant by the apt figure of the ox-goad. This proverb 
is derived from the use of the goad in the hands of those 
who are ploughing or driving cattle. To Saul it was a 
parable of his new relation to Jesus. It is the picture of 
the ploughteam at work in the fields. Heretofore, the 
young Pharisee had harnessed himself and gone whither 
he would, but now the Ploughman he had seen near Da- 
mascus seized the straying ox and was about to harness 
him to a new task and drive him in an entirely new direc- 
tion, whither he had never, never thought of going. The 
natural impulse of the ox would be to resist the will of the 
ploughman, for he had never gone that way before. To be 
yoked to the ploughteam of Jesus Christ would be equally 
distasteful to one who was laying waste the infant Church. 
But the presence of the ox-goad renders all resistance 
worse than vain. For Paul to resist the superior will of 
Jesus at the moment of his conversion, or from that time 
on, would be just as futile as for a beast that is yoked to 
the plough to kick against the sharp iron point of the long 
wooden pole in the hand of the driver. Though “ it goes 
against the grain,” to turn from his previous course, upon 
which he had staked his very life, he is resolved to resist 
Christ no longer by persecuting His disciples. Any effort 
on his part to interrupt the progress of the Church or to 
retard the advance of the Christian religion will be misdi- 
rected. Further opposition to the will of the Almighty 
will only recoil upon himself and lead to his undoing. In 
the full blaze of the heavenly light, Paul realizes how blind 
and short-sighted, after all, is human wisdom. He as a 


402 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


finite creature, stumbling along on his self-chosen way, 
cannot set himself with impunity against the infinite 
powers of the risen Christ, whose Lordship must be 
recognized. 

But he will do this willingly, yea gladly, in consideration 
of His mercy. The answer to his inquiry was not only a 
rebuke; it was filled with infinite love. It melted his heart 
and attached him to Christ forever. The heavenly Plough- 
man, who appeared to him, might have hurled the shaft of 
His righteous anger at the wilful destroyer in the vineyard 
and sent him to his doom. This might have happened, had 
Jesus been a man and nothing more, but the Man of Naza- 
reth, who had made many a plough in the village carpen- 
ter shop, wanted to do some real ploughing in the man’s 
heart so that he might become a fit instrument for apostolic 
service. Instead of destroying the raging Pharisee, He 
merely marks out for him a new course, honouring him 
with a most remarkable mission. Jesus of Nazareth in 
His heavenly exaltation comes to him with the call to the 
highest vocation on earth. He is bidden to rise and stand 
upon his feet (compare Ezek. 2:1-3). Having assumed 
the correct posture for the reception of the divine mes- 
sage, he learns from the lips of Jesus what the vision 
signifies. It has a practical purpose. The celestial light 
discloses to the straying wanderer the error and sin of his 
past life, lightening up at the same time the way of the 
cross, by which the convert is to be led to a saving knowl- 
edge of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. At 
this unique ordination service Jesus Himself delivers the 
charge to the apostle of the nations, outlining the work 
assigned him and committing to him in embryo the sub- 
stance of his message. Saul, or rather Paul, is to be a 
minister, a servant, a very slave in the service of Christ. 
As a minister of the Word, he is a witness, testifying 
what he has seen and heard, and supplementing what 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 403 


he already knows by what is to be subsequently revealed 
to him. 

In the elaboration of his message he was fortunate 
enough in being able to draw upon his enlightened knowl- 
edge of the Old Testament to show that Isaiah fifty-three 
and other prophecies, if rightly interpreted, are not at all 
inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 26: 22- 
23). On the contrary, the true idea of Old Testament re- 
ligion is fully realized in the Christian faith. There is no 
conflict between a spiritual interpretation of Judaism and 
Christianity. The promises made to the fathers find their 
highest fulfilment in the risen Christ who has just ap- 
peared to the future apostle of the Gentiles. His work as 
a preacher will be to open men’s eyes to the light of faith 
which he himself has seen, interpreting to both Jews and 
Gentiles the truth as it is in Jesus. Christ is to be the cen- 
tre of his preaching. In his own theological thinking he 
naturally begins with the resurrection of Jesus, which lies 
at the bottom of the startling experience. He sees the 
brilliant light encircling the transfigured form of the risen 
Christ, who reveals Himself to the astonished man as the 
very Jesus whom he had persecuted in His disciples. He 
is intensely impressed with the fact that the glorified 
Christ identifies Himself with the crucified Nazarene. 
His resurrection from the dead demonstrates Him to be 
the promised Messiah who is the Son of God; that is an 
absolute certainty. Thus a flood of light is thrown upon 
the crucifixion. Israel’s Messiah is essentially the suffer- 
ing Servant of Isaiah fifty-three, who by His death on the 
cross brings the godless world to justification, The aton- 
ing death of the righteous Servant is the necessary pre- 
lude to His resurrection and exaltation at the right hand 
of God. The Damascus experience, of course, did not 
\ reveal all this full-blown to the new disciple. However, 
we can be quite sure that it contained the embryo of his 


404 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


missionary message, just as the oak is contained in the 
living acorn. The resurrection is the starting-point of his 
theology. He has seen the risen Christ, heard His voice, 
and conversed with Him, receiving at the same time a brief 
outline of the work he is to do. Without a vision of the 
risen and exalted Christ the cross of Jesus would have had 
no meaning to a Jew, who believed that the promised Mes- 
siah could not die but that He would live and reign for- 
ever. He could never think of a political Messiah con- 
quering His enemies through the gateway of a sacrificial 
death any more than his fellow countrymen, who believed 
in a triumphant and victorious Messiah, ruling over His 
enemies with a rod of iron. This was a great stumbling- 
block to the Jews. In their eyes the element of suffering 
in the life of Jesus nullified His claim to the Messiahship 
of Israel. Not so, says Paul, for according to a number 
of passages in the prophets the Messiah is subject to suf- 
fering and He shall reign forever “because He hath 
poured out His soul unto death.” But with the fact of 
the resurrection firmly established by an experience too 
vivid to be doubted, we should expect to find the note of 
victory predominating in Paul’s preaching. He loves to 
think of a Christ who conquered death—of a Christ who 
suffered and died and rose again that He might reign 
supreme in the hearts and lives of all believers, who must 
also die and rise again in a spiritual or religious as well as 
in a moral sense. “If any man be in Christ he is a new 
creature.” 

As a minister and witness of Christ’s resurrection and 
exaltation, the apostle is charged, among other things, with - 
the duty of proclaiming the light of the gospel to all peo- 
ple, including the Gentiles, which is also in accord with 
the predictions of the great prophets. In his preaching 
among Jews and Gentiles he will stress the need of re- 
pentance, which is here defined as a turning of the people 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 405 


to the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, accompanied by “ works befitting their repentance ” 
as an expression of sincerity of purpose and of a right 
attitude to God and man. This turning of the whole life 
to God is the outward expression of the inner change 
wrought in the heart and mind of the man who accepts 
the message of the transfigured cross. In Paul’s case, con- 
version means a changed attitude toward the Person of 
Jesus. Or to express it in the figurative language of Acts 
26:14, we might say that the labouring ox in the field of 
Judaism had run wild in the fertile fields of Christianity, 
crushing the precious fruits of the Master’s toil under the 
heel of Jewish ecclesiastical authority. The Master of the 
vineyard, armed with the ox-goad, overtakes the refrac- 
tory animal on the way to Damascus, bringing the deadly 
enemy to a sudden stop under the constraint of an irre- 
sistible power. Saul is headed for Damascus, is seized by 
a higher power, and set on a new course. All at once the 
ardent persecutor turned right about face and became a 
zealous Christian apostle. God had shown him that Jesus 
was the Messiah. For once in his life Saul had to admit 
that prior to this he had been going in the wrong direction, 
His zeal for Judaism had been against the driving of the 
divine will. But out in the plains of Damascus Jesus takes 
sudden hold of the reins, assuming full mastery of Saul. 
The divine goad of the Ploughman sinks into his con- 
sciousness, leaving a wound which spells death to his 
Jewish prejudices against the Messiahship of Jesus. 
Henceforth he is a new man with different thoughts and 
aims. He has a different goal. He begins his course 
anew, trusting to the constraining power of the love of 
Christ to lead him on to the completion of his task in the 
Master’s vineyard. This is what conversion means to. Paul. 

True religion, then, is like a straight road leading to the 
one true God. The prophets came, one by one, to point 


406 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


out in a progressive way, how God could be found by His 
children on earth. In the fulness of time God sent forth 
His Son to show unto the children of men the true mean- 
ing of the way of salvation. Jesus laid bare to the world, 
both by word and example, the great heart of God. As 
God incarnate He could speak with authority as to the 
divine plan of salvation. He is the concrete embodiment 
of that plan; more than that, He is the way of salvation in 
His own Person. He says, “I am the Way ” that leads to 
God. Most of the people to whom Jesus preached misun- 
derstood Him and His message. They preferred the 
way of the law to the new way marked out by Jesus and 
His chosen apostles. The scribes and Pharisees consid- 
ered Him a heretic and were instrumental in nailing Him 
to the cross. While Saul of Tarsus is not heard from dur- 
ing the public ministry of Jesus, he nevertheless shared the 
opinion of these defenders of the traditional paths by per- 
secuting the Christians. He made up his mind to destroy 
them and so he became the chief persecuting instrument in 
the hands of the Jewish ecclesiastical authorities. A sys- 
tematic persecution in Jerusalem and Judea spread terror 
in the hearts of the Christians. They made haste to get 
out of Saul’s way. They fled in mortal terror of the man, 
some seeking refuge on farms far out in the country, 
others going as far as Damascus. Having organized a 
persecuting expedition, he set his face toward Damascus. 
But toward the end of the journey something happened. 
He saw the risen Christ, who told him that he was going 
the wrong way. It was this experience that swung him 
from a course consistently pursued up to this point, and 
gave a new direction to the marvellous energies with which 
he was endowed. From that hour there was but one thing 
for him to do: to turn from the goal of Judaism to the 
course marked out for him by Jesus Christ. Figuratively 
expressed, it is a turning from the dim shadows of a par- 


EL — EE 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 407 


tial revelation to the full light of the gospel. To be con- 
verted, then, is to be taken out of one sphere and placed 
in another, 

In the case of the Gentiles the contrast between the two 
spheres is even more pronounced. It is the difference be- 
tween darkness and light. The two spheres are compar- 
able to two kingdoms, the one under the dominion of evil 
or Satan and the other under the authority and control of 
God. Darkness is only another name for spiritual igno- 
rance, and the word “light” is a common figure for the 
illuminating effect of the spiritual truths of Christianity. 
A change from the sphere of pagan darkness to the light 
of gospel truth is effected by turning from the power of 
Satan, whose kingdom is darkness, unto God, who is light. 
Paul is sent to open the eyes of Jews and Gentiles alike, 
turning them from the darkness of unbelief to a saving 
faith in Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world. He 

“is to turn and convert them from the binding power of sin 
and Satan to the liberating gospel of the Son of God. 
Such repentance, if preached to Jews, involved a change 
of front with reference to the Messianic claims of Jesus 
and a corresponding willingness to bring the whole of life 
under his sovereign sway; if preached to the Gentiles, it 
would mean the abandonment of the pagan gods and a 
recognition of the claims of Jesus upon heart and life. 

But in view of the tenacity of Jewish prejudices and of 
pagan ignorance, the testimony of such a witness will not 
always be acceptable. His witness-bearing will be stub- 
bornly opposed by his own people, and he must expect 
persecution even among the Gentiles. The Master, how- 
ever, will not forsake His faithful witness. There is given 
a promise of deliverance from his enemies, so that he may 
preach the gospel without fear until such time as the wit- 
ness would be called upon to put the seal of martyrdom 
upon the message which he proclaimed. But to those who 


408 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


receive the message with a contrite heart, there is granted 
perfect remission and the right of inheritance among 
Christ’s followers, who have consecrated their lives to 
Him and His service. All these blessings are the result 
of faith in Christ Jesus. It is indispensable to salvation. 
Now what is meant by faith? 

To Paul, faith is not merely mental assent to the histor- 
ical facts of the life of Jesus, nor is it mere assent to the 
moral side of religion; it is more than that. It is trust and 
confidence in the promises of Christ and loyalty to His 
will; but it is even more than that. It is the reception of 
Christ into the soul and leads to complete oneness with 
Him. Faith is a receptive attitude to Christ. The man 
who believes in Christ is so completely identified with 
Him that he may draw constantly on the energizing, vital- 
izing power of limitless grace in the realization of His 
Master’s aims and purposes for all mankind. The be- 
liever, renouncing all pride, self-confidence and _ self- 
sufficiency, depends absolutely upon his Lord in every 
emergency. His confidence in Christ cannot be shaken. 
This is vastly more than mental or moral assent. Faith in 
Christ brings the believer into union with God. It is pri- 
marily a spiritual relation depending upon the attitude of 
receptivity to spiritual influences. Faith is the personal 
union of the soul with Christ, It tends to make the be- 
liever more and more like the Master Himself. So long 
as this faith-relation remains undisturbed, Christ dwells 
in the man, transforming him into a new creature. Christ 
and the believer are one. He identifies Himself com- 
pletely with His followers. Their wants and needs, their 
sorrows and afflictions are regarded by Him as His own. 
Whatever affects the disciple, affects the Master Himself ; 
what He has, they have; His life is their life. If Christ 
dies for the sin of the world, the disciple dies to sin; if 
Jesus rises from the dead, the disciple rises to newness of 


Ee a 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 409 


life. If Christ lives forever in a state of endless bliss and 
felicity, so shall the Christian. He is in Christ and Christ 
in him; the two are inseparable. Nothing but sin in one 
of its many forms, such as pride and unbelief or a lack of 
spiritual receptivity, can sever a union which is so vital to 
the Christian life. 

Paul never wavered in his faith after the day of Damas- 
cus. If he was once a consistent persecutor he became no 
less a consistent Christian. From the time of his conver- 
sion he was dead to Judaistic legalism but alive in Christ. 
By the most unexpected turn of events he is brought face 
to face with Jesus of Nazareth whose Messianic claims he 
had so persistently denied. The crisis of his life is upon 
him. What shall he do? What any sensible man will do 
when he “ sees the light ’—surrender to Jesus and bow to 
His imperial will. The narrative in Acts 26 assumes that 
Saul of Tarsus surrenders. Years later, in looking back 
upon the momentous event, he explains to Festus and 
Agrippa why it was that he took the step which was so 
distasteful to the Jews. He did not become an apostle of 
the new faith on his own initiative. His apostolic com- 
mission rested not on human but divine authority. It was 
forced upon him by a heavenly vision which had brought 
him into conscious contact with the risen Christ. The 
goad of the heavenly Ploughman had sunk into his soul. 
That day Saul turned right around and forever kept to the 
new turn in his life. Who was he to resist a higher 
power? What he had seen and experienced was so over- 
whelming and convincing that he could not afford to dis- 
obey the voice of Jesus, commissioning him to preach the 
gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. “ Wherefore, O King 
Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” 
His commission came to him from above. It was no less 
a Person than the glorified Christ who converted the fiery 
persecutor into an equally zealous Christian apostle. 


410 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Nothing else could have done it. That was the thing to 
emphasize at Cesarea. The remarkable experience of 
Ananias of Damascus and his part in the divine drama 
would have made no impression on Agrippa. After all, 
Ananias was only an obscure Roman subject who could 
do little to vindicate the divine origin of Paul’s commis- 
sion and the truth of the message proclaimed by him. He 
may have been favourably known to the Jews of Damascus 
and of Jerusalem, but he was a comparative stranger at 
Cesarea. To a pleasure-seeking, light-hearted king it was 
a matter of no particular moment whether the man was a 
strict observer of the Mosaic law or not. Paul realized 
that anything he might say concerning Ananias while 
standing before Festus and Agrippa would carry no 
weight with his audience. Feeling that here was a great 
opportunity to witness for Christ, he limited himself to the 
most important aspects of his conversion for the purpose 
of making a greater impression upon the hearts and minds 
of his hearers. Having had no occasion to refer to the 
human agency by which the call of Christ was to become 
still clearer to him after three days of fasting and prayer 
in Damascus, he also omits his temporary blindness and 
the restoration of his sight through Ananias, as well as the 
act of baptism admitting him to Christian fellowship. 
The situation was quite different when Paul sought to 
placate the Jewish mob outside the castle of Antonia (Acts 
22). In this hurried, almost breathless address, which 
was delivered not in Greek but in Aramaic, Paul calms the 
excited multitude long enough to give a brief history of 
his life up to the time of his visit to Jerusalem, three years 
after his conversion. He speaks in rapid succession of his 
birthplace, Jewish parentage, rabbinical training, and per- 
secuting zeal for the faith of the fathers. He then alludes 
to his experience on the way to Damascus in order to show 
that in championing the cause of Christianity which he 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 411 


had once opposed he was acting in obedience to a voice 
from heaven. At noonday a heavenly light appears, he 
falls to the ground and hears a voice saying, “ Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou Me?” On inquiry he learns that it 
is “ Jesus the Nazarene.” But not wishing to arouse the 
slumbering wrath of his prejudiced hearers, he omits the 
instructions given him by Jesus with reference to his 
apostolic labours. At this point he relates part of the con- 
versation between the heavenly Visitor and himself, in- 
structing him what he was to do. The Lord tells him to 
go on to Damascus as he had planned and further light 
will come to him as to the immediate plan of procedure. 
After a passing allusion to the blinding effect of the bril- 
liant light, making it necessary for him to be led into the 
city by his companions, he suddenly introduces into the 
argument a man whose testimony would be worth some- 
thing to a Jewish audience. Paul, it will be remembered, 
had been accused by an angry mob of disloyalty to the 
Mosaic law. To refute the charge he refers to Ananias of 
Damascus, a Jew of high character and standing among 
the people, whom he met in the most extraordinary man- 
ner several days after his arrival in the city. The apostle 
describes him as a strict observer of the Mosaic law, hav- 
ing a good reputation among orthodox Jews. This infor- 
mation must have had a somewhat conciliatory effect upon 
the audience. The speaker, at any rate, was not inter- 
rupted as he recited to them some details of the remarkable 
visit. The first thing Ananias did was to restore his sight. 
From the words quoted by him it appears that Paul was 
sitting down at the time, blind and wondering what next? 
Ananias comes in and says, “ Brother Saul, look up!” He 
looks up and with recovered sight sees the face of his bene- 
factor. The latter now brings to him in true prophetic 
style a message from the God of Israel, agreeing in a most 
striking way with his own experience a short time before. 


412 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Ananias solemnly declares, “The God of our fathers chose 
thee to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and 
to hear the voice of His mouth.” Paul wants his audience 
to know that in acting as he did he was in every step fol- 
lowing the will of God. He is just as loyal to Jehovah as 
they are. The new turn in his life was not of his own choos- 
ing; it was of God’s appointing. Therefore it is certainly 
unfair to call him a turncoat or renegade Jew. How could 
he do otherwise, when he saw and heard the Righteous 
One, as Ananias here asserts? While it is not expressly 
stated that Paul actually saw Christ, no one in the audience 
could fail to draw the inference in view of the fact that the 
title which is applied to Him is a familiar prophetic term 
for the expected Messianic King (Zech. 9:9). 

Thus the people were given to understand that there had 
been granted to Paul an actual appearance of Christ near 
the gates of Damascus. The reason for the appearance 
was that he might be a “ witness unto all men ” of what he 
had seen and heard. His is a universal mission, but as yet 
the Gentiles are not directly mentioned for fear of irritat- 
ing the Jews. Nothing is said of an exclusive mission to 
the Gentiles. That he was to become the apostle to the 
Gentiles in a very special sense may not have been so clear 
to him at the beginning of his career. The certainty of it 
must have grown upon him in the years immediately fol- 
lowing his conversion. Indeed, he will soon tell his audi- 
ence that he was compelled to recognize the painful fact 
three years later when he was praying in the temple. For 
the present, however, he will postpone discussing that 
phase of the subject until he is ready to describe his ex- 
perience while worshipping in the most sacred spot on 
earth. In view of the deep-seated race prejudice of his 
hearers, Paul will not take it upon himself to base any- 
thing he may wish to say regarding his Gentile mission on 
any revelation or experience which either he or Ananias 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 413 


may have had outside the Holy Land. All that he will say 
about Ananias at this critical moment is that the latter 
brought him into a more formal relation with the Church 
by the rite of Christian baptism, which was accompanied 
by the remission of sins, confessed by the penitent whilst 
“calling on the name of the Lord.” Thus Paul has at- 
tained his object by showing that he was not introduced to 
Christianity by an opponent of Judaism, but by a strict 
Jew. Were the people then to infer that it was possible 
for a member of the Hebrew race to be a Christian with- 
out being a violator of the Mosaic law (compare Acts 
21:20 ff.)? Yes, providing its observance was not re- 
garded as the sum and substance of religion. 

Having established his point as well as could be ex- 
pected under the circumstances, the apostle next leads up 
to his Gentile mission. A period of three years (Gal. 
1:18) is passed over by Paul without a word. During 
this time he had “ proclaimed Jesus ” in the synagogues of 
Damascus and sojourned in Arabia, the region occupied 
by the Nabateean Arabs. But the events of these years will 
not offer a satisfactory explanation as to how he ob- 
tained his authority for preaching to the Gentiles. This 
he attempts to do by calling attention to his experience in 
the temple area three years after his conversion. On his 
return to the Holy City he went to the temple to pray and 
being in an ecstatic state, he heard the Lord saying unto 
him, “ Make haste and depart quickly from Jerusalem, for 
they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me.” 

Paul’s prayers must have been of the agonizing, wrest- 
ling type. He could become so absorbed in his devotions 
as to shut out completely from his consciousness the usual 
sights and sounds of the world outside. His deeply spiri- 
tual nature was quick to respond to spiritual influences. 
To him prayer was an indispensable means of keeping in 
touch with a world of spiritual realities. Prayer is the 


414 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


road into the celestial courts of the Most High. The 
apostle could transport himself on the wings of prayer 
into another world and hold sweet converse with his Lord. 
The experience to which he refers on the castle stairs of 
the tower of Antonia, was not an imaginary one. He is 
not trying to deceive the Jews, or himself either, for that 
matter. It was a real experience. Its genuineness is 
vouched for by the fact that it was not superinduced by 
something that he wanted to hear. On the contrary, it 
taught him a most painful truth; for the loved his people. 
The Lord assures him that his unconverted countrymen, 
the Jews, will not believe him. But Paul, supposing Jeru- 
salem to be his proper field of labour, expresses a desire to 
remain, urging his special fitness to preach in this very 
place, where he had shown so much zeal in the persecu- 
tion of the Christians. Had he not at one time been just 
as hostile to the Christians as they are now? Was he not 
personally known to the inhabitants of the city, and could 
he not persuade them to believe that the great change 
which had come over his life necessarily pointed to God as 
the efficient cause? Would not the testimony of a man 
who had been such a zealous defender of Judaism have 
more weight among those who had witnessed the change in 
his character than among those to whom his previous life 
was unknown? Surely they could not doubt his sincerity, 
for if ever a man was sincere, he was when he pursued the 
Christians from pillar to post. They cannot help being 
impressed with the wonderful story of his conversion. 
But the Lord knows better. The command is, “ Depart, 
for I will send thee far hence to Gentile nations.” 

It was the Lord and not Paul himself that caused his 
going to the Gentiles. This is what the apostle had been 
trying to convey to the minds of the people. He wanted 
them to see that he had preached to the Gentiles in re- 
sponse to a direct divine command. Prior to that he did 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 415 


not wish to go. How gladly would he have laboured for 
his own people by preaching the gospel at Jerusalem. 
However, the divine command made that impossible. 
Henceforth his sphere of labour was not to be Jerusalem, 
but the world. Could Paul have said what he did in a 
more diplomatic way? And yet the people felt that he had 
used one word too many, the word “Gentiles.” The 
charge against him had been that he had brought Tro- 
phimus, a Gentile, into the inner court. The notice warn- 
ing foreigners against entering it read as follows, “ No 
foreigner may enter within the railing or boundary line of 
the sanctuary. Whoever is caught is responsible to him- 
self for his death, which will ensue.” But the wild, angry 
shouts of the mob deprived Paul of the opportunity to 
disprove the accusation. Garments, dust and a shrieking 
multitude brought the address to an abrupt close. The 
whole tone of the speaker and the evident sincerity of his 
words ought to have impressed the Jews, if for no other 
reason. But the national pride of the Jews rebelled at the 
thought that the Messiah Himself, referred to in Paul’s 
speech as the Lord, had commanded him in this very tem- 
ple to forsake such a highly favoured people as the Jews 
and repair to the uncircumcised Gentiles. To proclaim, as 
he had done for many years, the free admission of believ- 
ing Gentiles to equal privileges with the Jews in the king- 
dom of the Messiah was bad enough. But this is not all. 
He even makes it appear that the people of God should be 
rejected by the Messiah in favour of the Gentiles. What 
blasphemy! To their minds, the accusation preferred 
against him that he had broken the Mosaic law and pro- 
faned the temple by bringing an uncircumcised Gentile 
into the inner court needs no further proof. He must be 
guilty of the charge, for he himself has turned against his 
own national religion. What cared they about the reli- 
gious experiences of such a man! Away with him! 


416 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


This man’s conversion and his temple experience, which 
meant so much to him, did not mean much to the noisy 
rabble. They did not represent the true spirit of Old 
Testament religion which found such noble expression in 
the psalmists and prophets, but of the national exclusivism 
of a perverted legalism. ‘They failed to see in Paul a 
spiritual representative of prophetic universalism, 

Their attitude toward his Gentile preaching was one of 
intense hostility. O blinded prejudice that will not see the 
light of the Sun of Righteousness shining at noonday over 
the plains of Damascus! The eyes of the people are closed 
to the illuminating rays of a great spiritual experience in 
the courts of the Lord on Mount Zion. Though God is 
near and they are standing on holy ground, they cannot 
follow their old acquaintance to the mountain top of vision 
and look with prophetic eyes into the inner sanctuary, all 
radiant with the glory of God and of His Christ. There 
may be a semblance of prayer without any conscious con- 
tact with the Unseen. Where there is no faith the people 
perish for lack of vision. To a receptive and believing 
heart God is always present. That direct access may be had 
into the King’s presence was the experience of the apostle 
praying in the temple. It was to this prayer that we owe 
the mission of Paul to the Gentiles or rather the starting- 
point of the history of the universal Church. It brought 
to him the definite assurance that his duty lay in that direc- 
tion, and he went forth to conquer the world for Christ. 

Putting side by side the two accounts of Paul’s conver- 
sion, recorded in Acts 26 and 22, we can easily see why the 
apostle should select certain aspects of the Damascus ex- 
perience in addressing two different audiences. In each, 
case a careful selection of the material is necessary owing 
to the urgent pressure of the moment. At Czsarea the 
accusation was that Paul’s Gentile mission was based on 
the supposed resurrection of the crucified Nazarene. The 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 417 


indictment is that the prisoner is a deceiver of the worst 
type. The Sanhedrin has given him no authority to preach 
his false doctrines. He is a self-constituted apostle. In 
his defense before Agrippa, Paul puts the emphasis on the 
divine origin of his mission, basing it on the epoch-making 
event near Damascus. Neither the ruling council of the 
Jews nor any other earthly tribunal had anything to do 
with it. He received his call from the highest authority— 
from Jesus Himself, who appeared to him and conversed 
with him. He was to proclaim to all the world that he had 
seen and heard the risen Jesus. He did not invent the 
gospel. The underlying principles of his preaching would 
all be found in the instructions given him by Jesus. It was 
important therefore that this part of the conversation 
should be quoted. The words spoken by Jesus are the best 
refutation of the charge of heresy and wilful deception. 
Why should Paul hesitate to make repeated mention of 
Jesus in Agrippa’s presence? With all his faults, Agrippa 
was far more accessible to Christian truth than a mob of 
prejudiced orthodox Jews clamouring for the blood of 
the apostle of the hated Nazarene. As Paul did not get his 
apostolic message from Ananias there was no reason for 
mentioning his name at the court of Festus. But in his 
defense before a threatening multitude the apostle grad- 
ually leads up to his Gentile mission by selecting another 
part of the conversation he had with Jesus on the Damas- 
cus road, telling him to complete his journey and he would 
find out what to do. He then speaks of Ananias, who 
came to him like a prophet, one day, restored his sight 
and brought him a message from the God of Israel. 
The remarkable thing about this message was that it 
coincided, in substance at least, with the commission 
which he had already received from the lips of Jesus. 
But as the crowd was in no mood to listen to such a 
commission as coming from Jesus, who had suffered 


418 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


death for His unorthodox views, the best that Paul could 
do under the circumstances was to bring to their attention 
his experience with “one Ananias, a devout man accord- 
ing to the law, having a good reputation among all the 
Jews residing in Damascus.” 

They were ready to listen for a few brief moments, and 
so he told them what he said. There was more to tell 
about Ananias than he could relate to an impatient and 
riotous assembly. What he wanted Ananias to say was 
that Paul had been divinely chosen to bear witness “ unto 
all men” of what he had seen and heard. This informa- 
tion would furnish a splendid opening for his temple ex- 
perience three years after his conversion. Paul’s Gentile 
commission, already hinted at in the commission of Ana- 
nias, is now definitely expressed in unmistakable terms. 
With more time at his disposal, the apostle might have 
given a fuller description of Ananias and of how he came 
into possession of his prophetic message. Ananias is sud- 
denly but skilfully introduced into the narrative as a man 
of legal piety, endowed with the power of healing and the 
gift of prophetic utterance. How all this came about is 
related in Luke’s account of the scene in the ninth chapter 
of Acts, verses 9-19. Here we learn that Saul’s blindness 
lasted three days. His thoughts and feelings during this 
time are reflected in a like period of fasting. Though all 
was dark without, the light of truth was beginning to burn 
in his soul. The light which he had seen so recently on the 
desert road had changed him from a furious persecutor 
into a penitent Christian. The proud scion of Judaism 
was a broken man. His temporary blindness, which shut 
him off from the distracting influences of a busy city, en- 
abled him to concentrate his thoughts on the meaning of 
his recent experience. Saul abode in silent seclusion with 
the glare of that revealing light dazzling before his blinded 
eyes and the awful sound of the Master’s voice ever ring- 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 419 


ing in his ears. The thought of having persecuted Jesus 
filled his heart with unspeakable sadness. By so doing he 
had been at enmity with God. But the rebel is on his 
knees, confessing his sins and imploring divine forgive- 
ness. He pours out his heart to God in agonizing prayer 
and finds a gracious God. Presently he sees in his blind- 
ness a man, previously unknown to him, coming into his 
room and healing him. The stranger also puts his hand 
upon his head, by which the blind man was given to under- 
stand that he was to be filled with the Holy Spirit for 
service in the Church. 

Whether this revelation came to Saul in his sleeping or 
waking hours is not known. In the case of Ananias, how- 
ever, it appears that the Lord spoke to him in a dream as 
He spoke to Samuel of old, and then receives the same an- 
swer as Samuel gave, “ Behold, I am here, Lord.” ‘Thus 
one element of Joel’s prediction regarding the Messianic 
age is being fulfilled in the visions and dreams of specially 
gifted disciples, not only in the mother Church at Jeru- 
salem (Acts 2:17), but also among the Christians of 
Damascus. The gift of prophecy has now made its ap- 
pearance in the small Christian community at Damascus. 
Ananias recognizes the voice of the Lord saying to him, 
“ Arise and go into the street which is called Straight and 
inquire in the house of Judas for a Tarsean by the name of 
Saul, for behold, he prayeth!” Judas apparently was a 
man of more than average distinction to be able to enter- 
tain the official representative of the Sanhedrin. Saul, it 
seems, had told no one as yet of his conversion to Chris- 
tianity. Had he done so the news of the event would have 
spread like wildfire through the city. Ananias knows 
nothing of the conversion. He hears the request of Jesus 
with alarm. To him Saul of Tarsus is a name of terror. 
Who among the Christians of Damascus has not heard of 
the notorious persecutor pursuing his victims everywhere? 


420 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


The news of his present mission had preceded him and 
Ananias and his associates began to tremble for the safety 
of the flock. What could be the meaning of such a man’s 
prayers? Is he asking for divine assistance in his bloody 
work? No; this is a different prayer. It is the prayer of 
a disciple asking for enlightenment as to the course he is 
to pursue after what has happened near Damascus. But 
Ananias is too terror-stricken to catch the full scope of his 
Master’s words. He cannot understand how the pitiless 
commissioner of the Jewish senate should have experi- 
enced such a sudden change of heart. Saul of Tarsus was 
widely known as a sworn enemy of Christ and His cause. 
What a strange recruit to take the lead in the onward 
march of Christianity! Ananias cannot persuade himself 
to obey this command without registering a gentle protest, 
pleading as his excuse the well-known character of Saul 
and the nature of his errand to Damascus. But his fears 
give way to confidence when assured by the Lord that the 
persecutor was a marked man, chosen by Him to carry the 
gospel to the Gentiles and their kings as well as to the 
Israelites ; in the discharge of that mission the persecutor 
would be persecuted and suffer many things for His 
name’s sake. 

The next morning Ananias went on his way and found 
the once-dreaded Saul looking forward to his visit with 
great eagerness. By the healing touch of a hand, divinely 
commissioned for the work, the film that had gathered 
over the eyeballs of the arch-persecutor fell from his eyes 
and he received, along with the restoration of his sight, the 
inward illumination of the Holy Spirit. Hereupon Saul is 
received into the brotherhood of the disciples by baptism. 
The new convert then partakes of food and tarries certain 
days with the disciples. We are not altogether certain 
whether it was at this time or after his return from Arabia 
that he preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus to 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 421 


the great amazement of all that heard him. This brief 
preaching mission originated in the natural desire of an 
energetic man to make the best possible use of what was to 
be a short stay in Damascus. Scales had indeed fallen 
from his eyes. He saw the old life as God sees it. This 
only increased his zeal to atone in a measure for the sins 
of the past. And now that he is fully equipped for Chris- 
tian service, he cannot remain idle any longer. ‘“‘ Immedi- 
ately I conferred not with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16), 
but “ straightway ” proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God. 
Increasing in spiritual and intellectual power, he “ con- 
founded the Jews.” They knew the nature of his errand 
to Damascus. And yet, here was no wolf in sheep’s cloth- 
ing bent on taking unawares any Christians who may be 
visiting the synagogues. He preached with conviction, 
basing his teaching on his own experience and on his 
knowledge of the Scriptures. The new preacher threw his 
Opponents into consternation when he began in public to 
prove the Messiahship of Jesus. He knows this by ex- 
perience and is able to prove it by comparing the Messi- 
anic prophecies with the life, death and resurrection of 
Jesus. His arguments for the humanity and deity of 
Jesus are unanswerable. His theology is all summed up 
in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Saul the Pharisee had 
become a Nazarene by conviction. But the courageous 
preacher will experience ere long how difficult it is to pull 
down a flint-like wall of prejudice by loving persuasion. 
In that attempt he must needs suffer many things for the 
sake of a suffering Christ. But the undaunted apostle 
knows full well that seeming defeat will ultimately issue 
into victory. He will conquer by the transfigured cross of 
the risen Christ, notwithstanding the resentful and fanat- 
ical hatred of the Jews or the philosophic scorn of super- 
cilious Greeks. | 

In none of the three accounts of Saul’s conversion, re- 


422 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


corded in Acts 9, 22, and 26, do we have an absolutely 
complete account of all that occurred on this wonderful 
occasion. The three accounts really supplement each 
other. In his address before Agrippa, Paul dwells on the 
divine origin of his world mission. A world mission! 
What an interesting subject! That kind of a subject 
would appeal to a man like Agrippa, for he was a man of 
broad sympathies and of a somewHat tolerant spirit in 
matters of religion. His long residence in Rome con- 
tributed much to his international and universal outlook. 
An Idumean by birth, he was more of a Roman than a 
Jew. Though nominally a member of the Jewish church 
and an admirer of some of the Jewish ideals, he could not 
help sympathizing in a way with the universalism of Paul’s 
gospel as over against the commonly accepted but some- 
what narrow-minded interpretations of the Jewish reli- 
gion. He was the type of man who would be apt to listen 
with more than average interest to anything the apostle of 
the Gentiles might say with regard to the propagation of a 
freer, international gospel. Here at last was a religion 
with a universal appeal. There was nothing narrow or na- 
tionalistic about it. Race or colour seems to have nothing 
to do with it, for Paul speaks of a world mission. To 
Agrippa that kind of a gospel is most interesting, to say 
the least. Of course he will not come out in the open and 
say so. There is too much at stake for the Jewish king of 
the upper stretches of the east-Jordan country. But he 
will give the speaker a sympathetic hearing and listen to 
what he has to say about the divine origin of his mission. 
His apostolic call, he says, came directly from the risen 
Christ, who also commissioned him. Though many years 
have passed since then, he can still recall the terms of his 
commission as addressed to him by Jesus Himself. And 
to prove to the king that his call was based not on human 
but divine authority he quotes the very words of Jesus, 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 423 


commissioning him to preach the gospel to Jews and 
Gentiles alike. 

This explains why the incident of Ananias was omitted. 
Ananias only played a subordinate role anyway. Conse- 
quently no allusion is made to that other part of the con- 
versation, where the penitent convert, desiring further 
light as to the plan of procedure, humbly asks, “ Lord, 
what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto 
him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee 
what thou must do” (9:6; cp. 22:10). But in the ad- 
dress at Jerusalem the Ananias incident could not be 
omitted. It was the best entering-wedge the apostle had 
for the purpose in hand. Time was too pressing to de- 
scribe in detail how Ananias received his prophetic mes- 
sage. Luke, the historian, gives the answer in Acts 9: 10- 
16. How Luke obtained the information is not stated: 
Evidently Ananias himself related the details of his vision 
first to Paul, who in turn gave the information to Luke. 
To Paul it was of the greatest importance that Ananias, 
who was a total stranger to him, should have a vision 
about the same time agreeing in all essentials with his own. 
It was important enough for Luke to include in his histor- 
ical narrative because it would render the sudden conver- 
sion of the persecutor somewhat more intelligible. And 
yet the space at Luke’s command is so limited and his 
account so brief that he omits some of the details of the 
vision. So, for instance, in announcing the purpose of his 
visit Ananias says, “ Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus that 
appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent 
me” (9:17), or, as we have it in the words quoted by 
Paul as reported by Luke in Acts 22: 14-15, “ The God of 
our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know His 
will, and see the Righteous One, and shouldest hear the 
voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be a witness unto all 
men of what thou hast seen and heard.” This implies that 


424 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Ananias received more information concerning the con- 
version of Saul than Luke records. Luke cannot give a 
detailed account of everything that happened in connection 
with Paul’s conversion: to do so would have required a 
book on a much larger scale than the Acts of the Apostles. 
But he has given us sufficient material for the reconstruc- 
tion of the whole scene, not only on the desert road near 
the gates of Damascus, but also in the city on Paul’s ar- 
rival there. Minor differences in the three accounts do not 
obscure the main facts in the case. ‘These can be har- 
monized without mucly difficulty, so that the picture that 
we get of the event is a clear and vivid one. 

By a comparison of the threefold account we get the 
following picture: It is twelve o’clock noon. A caravan is 
approaching Damascus from the road leading to Jerusa- 
lem. A week’s journey is almost at an end. But suddenly 
there is a halt. The leader of the caravan and his com- 
panions fall to the ground. They are perplexed, bewil- 
dered, terrified. The sun is shining overhead. That 
something awful has happened is clear to all. But only 
Saul of Tarsus seems to know what it is all about. He 
sees a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun 
shining at high noon. He hears a voice saying to him, 
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for 
thee to kick against goads.” Thinking that the voice of 
the Speaker might be that of an angel or a higher being 
of some sort, Saul reverently asks, “Who art Thou, 
Lord?” and receives the reply, “I am Jesus whom thou 
persecutest.” Having heard the name, he looks up and 
recognizes in the dazzling light the heavenly form and 
countenance of the risen Christ. He rises to his feet as 
requested, and receives a direct call to preach to both 
Jews and Gentiles, but more especially to the latter 
(26: 16-19). But Saul of Tarsus had never thought of 
such a call before. Hence he is at a loss to know what to 


—————— oe ee ee 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 425 


do for the moment, and so he says, “ What shall I do, 
Lord?” Forthwith he is commanded to proceed to Da- 
mascus and God’s will concerning him will be made known 
to him in due time (22:10-11; 9:6-8). Stunned and 
blinded, Saul is led by the hand through the city gate to 
the principal street of the city. The sad procession stops 
at the house of Judas, where suitable lodgings are found 
for the chief of the caravan. He is ushered into a room 
and he lies down to rest. But the blind man feels that 
this is no time for rest. He changes his posture and as- 
sumes the attitude of prayer. Many an hour is spent in 
quiet meditation and agonizing prayer. He is too much 
absorbed in his own thoughts to think of taking food. His 
present needs cannot be expressed in terms of bodily food. 
He craves the privilege of serving Christ under more 
favourable circumstances. How gladly he would preach 
the gospel if he could only see with his eyes! If the su- 
pernatural light which he saw outside the city gates could 
bring about such a transformation and fill his soul with 
the light of a new life, would it not be possible for the 
same power to effect the lesser miracle by curing his 
blinded vision? But how is this to be accomplished? 
Surely Christ can heal him. He sinks upon his knees and 
prays and prays and he prevails! He sees a man coming 
to him and healing his eyes. This man is not the Christ 
he has seen in the supernatural light, but the indwelling 
Christ in a humble believer. 

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, the Lord ap- 
pears in a dream to a disciple, named Ananias, informing 
him that the fiery zeal of the persecutor should henceforth 
burn itself out in lifelong apostolic service. The man’s 
scruples are overcome by a revealing glimpse of the epoch- 
making scene on the Damascus road, The next morning 
he proceeds to the house of Judas, welcomes Saul as a dis- 
ciple, lays his hands upon him, restores his sight, com- 


426 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


municates to him the gift of the Holy Spirit for service, 
baptizes him and conveys to him the message of Jesus 
(9: 10-19; 22: 12-16). Three years later, while praying 
in the temple, the apostle is commanded to leave Jerusa- 
lem immediately, as his preaching there would be of no 
avail. But as the temple vision came after the Damascus 
experience we conclude this part of our sketch by saying 
that amid all the details which fill in the picture, one fact 
stands out above all others, and that is, that Saul of 
Tarsus was a changed man; he had seen Jesus and had 
received a direct call to preach the gospel. This is also 
borne out by Paul’s allusions to the event in his Epistles. 
He only refers to it in connection with some other subject 
under consideration. There is no need for describing in 
detail the momentous change in his life, since the people to 
whom he wrote already knew of his conversion. While 
these references are few and far between, they are never- 
theless emphatic and uniform. They all point to the great 
central fact that lies behind the Damascus experience, and 
it is this, Saul of Tarsus became a Christian apostle by a 
personal revelation of Jesus Christ. 

It is to this experience that he refers in the first chapter 
of Galatians, not for its own sake, but for the sake of 
meeting the attacks of his Jewish opponents, who had 
called in question his apostolic authority. During Paul’s 
absence from Galatia, certain Jews, introducing themselves 
as preachers of the gospel, took it upon themselves to 
preach a gospel differing radically from the one already 
proclaimed by the apostle. These self-appointed teachers 
looked upon themselves as the faithful custodians of the 
teachings of Jesus. They had the genuine gospel. They 
laid stress on having known Jesus in the flesh. The apos- 
tle to the Gentiles had not enjoyed such a privilege. Paul’s 
gospel, they asserted, needed supplementing at various 
points. They have come to render it more complete. As 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 427 


originally delivered to the Galatians it is positively mis- 
leading and false. In truth, however, they manifested 
greater zeal for Moses than for Christ. They had taken 
offense at Paul’s gospel, because of its emphasis upon sal- 
vation by faith in Christ. They were of the opinion that 
the Mosaic law should apply to Jews and Gentiles alike. 
They concluded that the Gentiles should submit to the rite 
of circumcision, which was the sign of the old covenant. 
But as this would destroy the foundation-principle of his 
gospel, which centred in Christ, Paul could not yield to his 
opponents on this point. He was in duty bound to tell 
them that his gospel was not founded on any external 
works prescribed by the law of Moses. He is the messen- 
ger, not of the old but of the new covenant. The law has 
fulfilled its purpose by pointing men to Christ. What the 
law could not do, Christ has done. He has fulfilled the 
law, thereby setting up a new standard of obedience. He 
Himself is the standard of the new kingdom. In the king- 
dom of the Messiah everything depends upon a personal 
relation to Jesus Christ and not upon a man’s relation to 
the law. A soul-transforming faith in Christ takes the 
place of mere outward conformity to certain legal 
requirements. 

The Old Testament itself ought to convince his critics 
of the correctness of his gospel-message. Abraham was 
justified not by a law enacted several centuries after his 
time, but by faith in God’s promises. These have now 
been fulfilled in Christ. Paul will proclaim that truth in 
spite of the Judaizers in Galatia or anywhere else. Any 
teaching which is at variance with his gospel is no gospel 
at all. He will write to the churches of Galatia and warn 
them against the false teachers, who want to rob them of 
their gospel liberty. Should his opponents persist in chal- 
lenging his apostolic authority, he will have to inform 
them that he did not invent his gospel to please the Gen- 


428 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


tile wing of the Church. He is no men-pleaser. The 
charge that he was swayed by personal considerations in 
preaching his gospel is ludicrous. It is disproved by his 
conversion. From a merely human standpoint he had 
nothing to gain by becoming a Christian. He knew at the 
outset that it would mean a life of poverty, privation and 
persecution. And yet his antagonists have the audacity to 
question his motives! His zeal for the Jewish religion 
before he was converted ought to convince them that he 
could not have been transformed into a Christian apostle 
by mere human means. - He did not receive his apostleship 
to the Gentiles at second-hand through the agency of Ana- 
nias, Barnabas, Peter or any other disciple they might 
mention. As a determined persecutor of the Christians he 
was inaccessible to any Christian influences which might 
have led to his conversion. The Christian channel into 
which his life was directed was not cut out by human 
hands or by the will of man; something else was needed 
to blast the rock of his Jewish prejudices and convic- 
tions. He received his commission not from any human 
source, but from God through a “revelation of Jesus 
Caristi ie lvtZ)" 

The gospel which he preached was not from men or 
through men in the same sense that the immediate disciples 
were not from men or through men, for he, as well as the 
original Twelve, was called directly and personally by 
Christ. He did not sit down and work it out through an 
intellectual process. It came from God through Jesus 
Christ. His faith in Christ and his understanding of the 
gospel were not due to any human agency. Christ, in con- 
verting and calling him, used no human instrumentality. 
The great change in his life was wholly independent of the 
older apostles, nor did he go up to Jerusalem to confer 
with them until three years later, and even then he saw 
only Peter and James the Lord’s brother. Ananias played 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 429 


but an external part in the divine drama. When he ap- 
pears on the scene the converted man has already received 
his commission directly from Christ. Ananias, strictly 
speaking, had nothing to do with his conversion, except in 
an administrative or sacramental way perhaps. The con- 
version itself was a sudden, unheralded event. Saul never 
had such a surprise in all his life. The Galatians, of 
course, know of his conversion. But he cannot help think- 
ing of it and alluding to it. The Judaizers in the Galatian 
Church did not openly deny that Christ had appeared to 
him on the way to Damascus. They could not do that, 
when the Damascus experience had already been recog- 
nized as a fact by the apostles at Jerusalem. To deny 
openly that Christ had appeared to Paul would have de- 
feated their purpose. Hence they are willing to go as far 
as to say that Jesus may have appeared to him, but they 
can never admit that Jesus had given him the gospel 
which he preached in Galatia. They hinted that the lead- 
ers in the mother Church at Jerusalem had little sympathy 
with it. Their claim was that Paul had accommodated his 
gospel to the wishes and prejudices of his Gentile hearers. 
Nevertheless he will remind these false brethren of the 
momentous scene, in view of their contention that he did 
not receive his gospel from Christ. He wants them to 
remember that one day, while on a mission of persecution 
to Damascus, the risen Christ suddenly appeared to him in 
a visible and audible form. He heard the voice of Jesus 
commanding him, in a conversation of some length, to 
preach the faith which he had once destroyed. He is to 
proclaim to all the world that Jesus of Nazareth is risen 
from the dead. He knows this to be true because he saw 
Him alive. To him the resurrection is a fact. Nothing is 
more certain. He saw the risen, glorified Christ. This 
Christ is a divine Being, with full knowledge of the secrets 
of the heart and all-powerful. If that is the case, the 


430 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


Preacher of Galilee is not merely a Jewish Messiah. He 
is the Son of God, who is the God of Jews and Gentiles 
alike. Jesus therefore is a universal Saviour. 

All this comes to him through the revealing light of 
Christ’s appearance at the time of his conversion. While 
he may not have known all the details of the life of Christ, 
he knew the main thing from the very beginning of his 
Christian career. The glorified Son of the only true God 
has been revealed to him in the person of the crucified but 
risen Jesus. The cross is no longer a stumbling-block. 
The Christian believer-is liberated from sin by the innocent 
Sufferer on the cross (1:4). The benefits of Christ’s 
death and resurrection are for all. It was the Damascus 
experience, then, that qualified him to call the Gentiles to 
the Christian fold. Jesus revealed Himself to him and 
gave him the gospel which he preached, as well as the call 
to preach it. “It pleased God who called me by His 
grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him 
among the Gentiles ” (1: 15-16). Here we have a definite 
allusion to the conversion. According to the narrative in 
Acts, Paul had seen a great light and heard the commis- 
sioning voice of the resurrected Jesus. Both Paul and 
Luke speak of the event as an external manifestation of 
Jesus, who appears to the persecutor in a visible and aud- 
ible form. But the experience must not be regarded as 
something merely external; it was also internal. There is 
a great deal more in the Damascus experience than a mere 
excitation of the senses. The living and exalted Christ 
is a spiritual Being. He must be spiritually apprehended. 
Spirituality in religion is more than an emotional thrill. 
An appeal to the senses is not enough. Nor is it sufficient 
for a man to have seen the Lord Jesus with his eyes and 
to have heard His voice. The light without must burn and 
shine within, and the voice of Jesus must become audible 
in the depths of conscience. Saul of Tarsus cannot be- 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 4831 


come a Christian missionary without an inner, spiritual 
response to the revealing light and the commissioning 
voice. His apostolic commission is grounded in the in- 
ternal revelation of Christ as the Son of God. There can 
be no call to apostleship without an inward transformation 
of the man who had persecuted the followers of a cruci- 
fied and supposedly dead Messiah. A profound spiritual 
experience is necessary to change the persecuting Pharisee 
into a persecuted apostle. 

In his unconverted days it was utterly impossible for 
him to see anything in Jesus but a deceiver of the people, 
whose death on the cross had put an end to His Messianic 
pretensions. A veil of prejudices had blinded the eyes of 
Saul to the divine glory of a crucified Deliverer, conquer- 
ing through sacrifice. The only Messiah he had known 
was a Messiah of the fleshly Jewish type. To Saul the 
cross was a cross of shame and not of glory. His concep- 
tion of Israel’s Christ had to be spiritualized. The earthly 
and human conception must give place to an inward vision 
of Christ’s true greatness. Faith must be kindled in his 
heart in the Messiahship of the crucified Nazarene. There 
is still lacking an internal revelation of Jesus as the Son of 
God. This alone will remove the veil of spiritual igno- 
rance in the mind and heart of the persecutor. And this 
is what happened near Damascus. Saul’s conversion was 
rendered possible by an external manifestation of Jesus 
and an inward illumination of the man’s heart, enabling 
him to see the meaning of the cross in the light of Christ’s 
resurrection. It was his privilege to have a personal inter- 
view with Jesus of Nazareth after His death, and he now 
sees Jesus in His true nature as God’s Son and as the Re- 
deemer of the world. The cross is the emblem of the 
greatest victory ever achieved on earth. What was for- 
merly a stumbling-block has suddenly been converted into 
an indispensable part of the glad tidings of salvation. At 


432 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


that decisive hour Paul saw the light of a new day shining 
in his heart. What light is to the physical world, Jesus is 
to the soul. In II Corinthians 4:6 the apostle compares 
the experience to the first day of creation. The glorious 
vision of the Son of God opened up to him a new world. 
It reminds him of the creative dawn of Genesis 1:3. The 
same God who dispelled the darkness of a chaotic world 
has converted him into a torch-bearer of God’s own light 
shining on the suffering but glorified brow of the Son of 
God. By another creative act at the beginning of the 
Christian era, God had shone in the heart of Saul to give 
“the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ.” He is the bearer of a world- 
illuminating gospel. He must proclaim to all the world 
that he has seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 

The divine epiphany, then, is not an ordinary seeing and — 
hearing with the physical senses. Whatever else it may be, 
it is an inward experience. It is a spiritual birth of Christ 
in the soul of the new convert. Out of the revelation of 
the Son of God within him is born the conviction that 
Christ lives in him (Gal. 2:20). The “in me” of our 
passage in Galatians (1:16) points to a mystic union with 
Christ. Paul is united with Christ, who has redeemed 
him by making him completely one with Himself. This 
oneness between himself and the Messiah is a very real 
thing. It is more than a oneness of mind or heart or will, 
more even than the possession of a Christ-like character, 
Saul, after his conversion, is actually one with Christ in 
nature. His life has been enriched by the incoming of a 
divine power. To Paul, Christ is not simply a great his- 
toric figure, thought of as belonging to the past, and with 
whom he may commune at stated intervals, but an ever- 
present reality, functioning as an energizing, life-giving 
and transforming power in heart and life. The spiritual, 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 433 


living Christ is in Paul, and Paul the Christian believer is 
in Christ. This indwelling of Christ began at Damascus. 
Since that day Paul felt the presence of a new life within 
himself. The old Saul cannot recognize himself. The 
spiritual entrance of the living Christ into his inmost soul 
had resulted in a marvellous transformation. New powers 
burst forth into being. He says, “I can do all things 
through Him that strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). The 
old life is gone. The life which he now lives is lived in 
conscious communion with the indwelling Christ. He is a 
saved man because Christ has taken up His abode in him. 
Paul and Jesus are one. There is an identity of interests, 
of purpose and of action. The personality of the one has 
been merged into that of the other. By this union a new 
spiritual element has come into the life of Paul. The 
power of sin in the old Adam has been broken and Paul 
is a new creature. 

It is well to bear in mind this twofold aspect of Paul’s 
conversion. In his defense before Festus and Agrippa, 
Paul emphasizes the external circumstances of the divine 
call. These would be more apt to impress the audience 
than the inner change wrought in his heart. But the situ- 
ation in Galatia called for a different treatment. The pas- 
sage in Galatians brings out the inner aspect of the con- 
version. Paul meets the attack of the false brethren there 
by stating most emphatically that the gospel to which they 
objected was the outcome of a great spiritual experience. 
His gospel has to do with a spiritual, living world-Messiah 
and not a carnal Messiah of the Jewish type. It is a spi- 
ritual and not a man-made gospel that he is preaching. 
The dominant note in meeting the objections of his critics 
is not upon the more striking, external details of the Da- 
mascus experience. That would never do in the present 
instance. The Judaizers were preaching a gospel based on 
a Jewish understanding of the life of Jesus. They had 


434 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


externalized the glorious facts of the gospel. Men who 
have never caught the spirit of Jesus must be taught to see 
the spiritual side of Christianity. He once thought of 
Christ as they did. But he has had a great spiritual ex- 
perience. God revealed His Son to his inner consciousness 
as a spiritual Being. What a fallacy, therefore, to put 
Moses and Christ on the same plane. The living, glorified 
Christ is above Moses. The Son of God has the right to 
set down His own terms of admission into the new king- 
dom. Christianity cannot be pressed into the narrow, legal 
mould of external performances. Christ is spirit and He 
is life! 

Some writers on the life of Paul seek to discredit the 
external features of the conversion in the book of Acts 
by pointing to Galatians 1:16, as if the Damascus experi- 
ence was nothing but a spiritual revelation of Christ to the 
soul. Such a view, however, fails to do justice to all the 
facts in the case. Paul’s object in writing to the Galatians 
is to show that his spiritual conception of Christ goes back 
to a great spiritual experience. God, he says, revealed His 
Son in him for the express purpose of enabling him to 
proclaim to the Gentiles a spiritual world-Messiah. The 
Judaizers had no such experience, and that is why they 
offered to the Galatian converts a Jewish Messiah. They 
held fast to the outer shell of the life of Jesus as it mani- 
fested itself in the days of His flesh. That He was a 
member of the covenant race and kept the law stood out so 
prominently in their preaching that the real Christ was in 
danger of being lost to the Church. Paul saw the danger- 
ous trend of the whole movement. He came to the rescue 
by presenting the inner phase of his conversion, which lay 
at the bottom of his deeply spiritual conception of Christ. 
The kernel of his preaching is not a materialistic Christ, 
hemmed in on every side by the limitations of Jewish cere- 
monial laws, but a universal Messiah of a spiritual type. 





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CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 435 


The principles and teachings of the historic Jesus have 
come to their highest fruition in the spiritual experience 
of Paul. 

But our subject is not exhausted by affirming that the 
experience referred to in Galatians 1: 16 was of a spiritual 
character. There is reason to believe that it was external 
as well as internal. The revelation of Jesus to Paul was 
not confined to the inner consciousness. Before the day of 
Damascus his eye of faith was closed to the spiritual glory 
of the Crucified. It was not opened by the ordinary oper- 
ation of spiritual laws within the realm of human person- 
ality. In the case of Saul of Tarsus something out of the 
ordinary was needed to remove the scales from his eyes. 
In I Corinthians 9: 1 and 15:8 he tells us what it was that 
brought about the change. The sum and substance of the 
two passages is that Paul has seen the risen Lord. In 
I Corinthians 9: 1 he asks, “Am I not an apostle? Have 
I not seen Jesus our Lord?” This is his reply to the false 
Jewish brethren, who had raised a discussion at Corinth 
regarding the nature of Christ’s appearance to Saul of 
Tarsus. They questioned the reality of his experience. 
They tried to make his converts believe that he was no real 
apostle because he had never seen the Lord Jesus. Pos- 
sibly they looked upon Paul’s statement in Galatians as an 
evasion of the main issue. An inner revelation, they 
urged, is something so vague and uncertain. Who knows 
whether there is anything to it? If there were, he would 
not have spoken of it as a spiritual experience. In fact, 
they are positively certain that what he thinks he saw and 
heard, lacked objective reality. But Paul loses no time in 
telling the Corinthians that no matter what others may say 
and do, they certainly cannot doubt the reality of his con- 
version, when they themselves were converted by the com- 
pelling power of a convincing message. If a tree is to be 
judged by its fruits, then the fruits of his labours prove 


436 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


the call. The Corinthian converts are the living proof of 
his apostleship. The experience to which the Judaizers 
refer was real enough, and so was the call to apostolic 
service. However others may interpret the vision which 
led to his conversion, to Paul it was something objectively 
real. He had a real experience. It was not the result of 
a vivid imagination. He actually saw the real Christ with 
his bodily eyes. 

When he speaks of seeing the Lord Jesus, he does not 
mean that he saw Jesus during His earthly life. In the 
passage before us he connects his apostleship with his 
having seen the Lord. This shows that he is thinking of 
the appearance of Christ to him on the way to Damascus 
which was just as real as the appearances of the risen 
Jesus to the disciples. What he is anxious to establish is 
that he has just as good a right to be called an apostle as 
any of the Twelve. If the original apostles received their 
commission immediately from the lips of Jesus, so did he. 
He saw Jesus as they had seen Him after the resurrection. 
He, too, is an eye-witness who can testify to Christ’s 
victory over death. In I Corinthians 15:8 he declares 
Christ appeared to him as He had appeared to the other 
apostles. He also hints that the resurrection appearances 
of Jesus were now closed, the appearance of Christ to him 
being the last in the series. Possibly he was included in 
that series because God had more to say to man than had 
already been said by the twelve apostles. In listing these 
appearances he writes, “ And last of all as to an abortion 
He appeared to me also.” Like an abortive offspring, 
Saul of Tarsus came into a new world under abnormal 
circumstances. His older brothers in the apostolic family 
had a more normal development. They entered upon their 
apostolic labours after spending a year or more in the 
company of Jesus who called, trained and commissioned 
them for special service. They were the fruit of the Mas- 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 487 


ter’s patience and toil. While that fruit did not mature 
any too soon, they had at least a growing faith in Jesus of 
Galilee and they had seen the risen Lord. 

Saul, on the other hand, had no such faith before start- 
ing for Damascus. In fact he had no faith at all in the 
Messiahship of Jesus. He was a violent persecutor bent 
on destroying the Christians. And to think that such a 
man should be favoured with a divine call to preach the 
gospel to the Gentiles! His apostolic birth defied the ordi- 
nary laws of spiritual growth.. There is nothing natural 
about his entrance into the apostolic family. He was by 
no means ready for such a spiritual birth. It was a sud- 
den, revolutionizing change, involving a complete rupture 
with the past. He resembles a fcetus torn prematurely 
from the maternal womb. He is not a normal child at all 
in the spiritual realm. All these years he had been devel- 
oping along the most conservative Pharisaic lines, but on 
that momentous journey from Jerusalem to Damascus he 
was torn, as by a violent operation, from his former sur- 
roundings to which he had been clinging with all the fibres 
of his being, and placed in a new world. Had it not been 
for the divine favour and the quickening power of God’s 
mercy, he could never have survived the awful experience 
through which he passed on the road to Damascus. How 
terrible must have been the agony when he first looked 
into the face of Jesus, whom he had persecuted in His dis- 
ciples! The remembrance of it makes him positively un- 
happy. He is not worthy to be called an apostle. The 
lowest place in the apostolic group is much too good for a 
rebel such as he was. Yet through the favour shown him 
from on high and the divine power working within him, 
he surpassed in toil and suffering all the other apostles. 
The subdued rebel takes no personal credit for this. He 
owes it all to the undeserved favour of God who girded 
and equipped him for apostolic service (I Cor. 15: 9-10). 


438 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


In the passages we have quoted from the Epistles, Paul 
connects the appearance of the risen Christ with his apos- 
tolic mission. I Corinthians, as we have seen, emphasizes 
more especially the external side of the experience. This 
was Paul’s answer to those who had said that he had never 
seen Jesus. As in Galatia, so at Corinth, Paul could not 
help telling his converts about his own conversion. And 
so all that we have in these two Epistles is a passing refer- 
ence to that decisive moment of his life, when he himself 
was converted. The passage in Galatians reveals the in- 
ternal character of the event. It was no superficial 
experience of Christ such as the false brethren had ex- 
perienced. A deeply spiritual conception of Christ argues 
a spiritual experience. The universal truths of Christian- 
ity cannot be narrowed down to suit the national preju- 
dices of the Jewish people. The moment that is done, its 
claim to universality is lost. While on earth Jesus did 
indeed live and work among the Jews, but the activity of 
the risen, glorified Christ is no longer limited to any par- 
ticular race. It is also worth remembering that the prin- 
ciples laid down by Him in His teaching and preaching 
activity are universally true. And the time has come when 
they should be applied universally. Jesus did say to the 
woman of Samaria that salvation is of the Jews. But the 
fact that she was a Samaritan clearly indicates that He 
was even then thinking of drawing all men into the net of 
the gospel. That is to be the task of the men who had 
caught His spirit. The Christ who revealed Himself to 
Paul belongs to a needy world. Paul is the immediate 
messenger of the risen Lord, prepared by a special revela- 
tion for world-conquest. Faith in a living, universal 
Christ is something quite different from the narrow legal- 
istic program of the false preachers in Galatia, who seemed 
to think that every Gentile would have to become a Jew 
before he could become a Christian. 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 439 


Taking together all these passages from Paul’s Epistles 
we have a picture not unlike that of Acts 26, of a sudden 
spiritual transformation and call to apostolic service, 
brought about by an appearance of the risen Lord. Men- 
tion is made of the same appearance in Acts 9 and 22, 
where part of the conversation between Jesus and Paul 
is also recorded. To Paul the divine epiphany was both 
external and internal. He regarded it as something 
unique. Its reality was beyond question. He stoutly 
maintained to his dying day that he had witnessed an ex- 
ternal appearance of the risen Christ, who conversed with 
him and sent him on his mission. He had a most convinc- 
ing experience. His own countrymen may quibble about 
it and question the reality of his experience—they may call 
him a visionary, a men-pleaser, a deceiver, a prevaricator 
and a liar—they may even follow him with malicious in- 
tent from one city to another and persecute him and stone 
him almost to death—he will die a thousand deaths rather 
than deny the reality of his Damascus experience. He has 
seen and he has heard with the result that he suddenly 
found himself in a new world of spiritual realities. That 
world was the Christian world. He, too, could say with 
the blind man whose sight had been miraculously restored 
that “ whereas I was blind, now I see”’ (John 9:25). 

But a man need not be a Pharisee to treat with contempt 
this miracle of healing, or a Judaizer to question the real- 
ity of Christ’s appearance to Saul of Tarsus. An event 
which lies so far outside the ordinary experience of men is 
bound to be interpreted in different ways by men of vary- 
ing shades of religious belief. Many so-called explana- 
tions do not explain the problem. Some of them are too 
fanciful even to mention, as for example, the idle story 
invented by a heretical Jewish Christian sect of the second 
century known as Ebionites. To these descendants of the 
Judaizers of the apostolic age Jesus was only a mere man. 


1 440 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


They were intensely hostile to the apostle of the Gentiles 
and rejected his writings because of his attitude toward 
the rite of circumcision and the Jewish law in general. 
They asserted that he was no Jew at all, that he was a Gen- 
tile by birth, who fell in love with the daughter of the 
high priest in Jerusalem and submitted to circumcision in 
order to marry her, but finding himself deceived by the 
high priest, he took revenge and attacked the Mosaic law. 

Mention is made in the Clementine Homilies (170-200 
A.D.) of an equally unworthy attempt on the part of cer- 
tain Judaizers to discredit the reality of Paul’s experience 
by insinuating that Paul’s account of the event was either 
a fraudulent invention, or if Jesus appeared to him at all, 
He did so to vent His wrath upon the dangerous adversary 
and to check his persecuting zeal. The reader is left to 
infer that Paul’s Gentile mission must have been the result 
of an illusion of some kind. 

These idle speculations of the old Judaizing heresy call 
to mind the attempt of a later day to assign the conversion 
and call of the apostle to the natural sphere of every-day 
life. The only difference between the former and the lat- 
ter seems to be that the theorists of more modern times are 
far more positive in their assertions than the speculating 
Judaizers of the early Christian centuries. Renan, for 
example, positively assures us that Paul was the victim of 
an hallucination due to moral and physical causes of an 
abnormal character. “ Every step to Damascus,” he says, 
“excited in Paul bitter repentance; the shameful task of 
the hangman was intolerable to him; he felt as if he was 
kicking against the goads; the fatigue of travel added to 
his depression; a malignant fever suddenly seized him; 
the blood rushed to his head; the mind was filled with a 
picture of midnight darkness broken by lightning flashes ; 
it is probable that one of those sudden storms of Mount 
Hermon broke out which are unequalled for vehemence, 


—_* 


ee SS ee 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 441 


and to the Jew the thunder was the voice of God, the 
lightning the fire of God. Certain it is that by a fearful 
stroke the persecutor was thrown on the ground and de- 
prived of his senses; in his feverish delirium he mistook 
the lightning for a heavenly vision, the voice of thunder 
for a voice from heaven; inflamed eyes, the beginning of 
ophthalmia, aided the delusion.” 

This recital, of course, is purely conjectural. The phys- 
ical causes enumerated by the author were taken over by 
him almost bodily from his rationalistic predecessors who 
attributed the conversion to the delirium of brain-fever 
and to a violent storm accompanied by lightning and thun- 
der. According to the theory, fatigue and sore eyes, a 
thunder-storm and a brain-storm, gave rise to the illusions 
which the apostle took in good faith for an appearance of 
the risen Christ. With the blood thus rushing to his head 
the poor man failed to distinguish an ordinary natural oc- 
currence from a supernatural vision. However, we can- 
not help remarking in a modest way that when he gets 
well and returns to normalcy this delirium, unlike that 
of other patients, still abides. The apostle never ceased 
telling the world what he had seen and heard on the 
road to Damascus. If his great service to humanity 
was founded on a mistake and if he was simply a vision- 
ary, would it not have been to his advantage to follow 
the line of least resistance and neutralize the Damascus 
experience by another imaginary experience during one 
of the many thunder-storms of the rainy season, admon- 
ishing him to carry the work of inquisition to a glorious 
consummation? For, was he not engaged in a Holy War 
at the time? 

“But,” says the critic, “let me state the argument more 
fully. The physical factors are important, but they do not 
explain the ‘heavenly vision.’ In my theory, the principal 
stress is laid on the element of remorse. The principal 


442 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


cause of Saul’s conversion is remorse of conscience. The 
bloody work of persecution was a terrible shock to his 
keen sensibilities and refined tastes. On that memorable 
journey he felt increasingly sorry that he had ever taken 
upon himself the execution of such an odious task. 
Toward the end of the journey he found himself strug- 
gling against the pangs of conscience, and that is what is 
meant by ‘kicking against the goads.’ The struggle 
reached its climax at or near Damascus when all the con- 
ditions were favourable.” 

Let us now pause for a moment and examine the evi- 
dence with respect to the moral factor urged by Renan and 
others. The theory of remorse flatly contradicts the ex- 
press testimony of Paul himself and of the three accounts 
in the book of Acts. There is not the slightest hint any- 
where that the persecutor had any scruples of conscience 
as to the justice of his cause before he reached the scene 
of his conversion. The passage in Acts 26:14 does not 
imply that Saul had been kicking against the goads of 
agonizing remorse, and that the thunder-storm came along 
to help him out of his predicament, but rather that the 
straying animal in the Master’s vineyard had been brought 
to a sudden halt by the ox-goad of the divine Ploughman. 
Instead of girding himself and going where he pleases, he 
is suddenly seized by his new Master and harnessed to the 
ploughteam of Jesus Christ. Before that memorable hour 
he had no scruples as to whether or not he should perse- 
cute the Christians. According to Acts 26:9, this inter- 
pretation agrees with Paul’s own statement at Ceesarea. 
He solemnly declares, “I verily thought with myself that 
I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus 
of Nazareth.” He hated the Galilean Prophet and His 
new religion. He was resolved to persecute to the bitter 
end all that were deluded by Him. To a discerning mind 
these Christians would ere long destroy the traditional in- 


ee ee ee 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 443 


stitutions by their perverted delusion. Saul, the Pharisee, 
did his level best to uphold and preserve the precious 
heritage of Israel’s religion. And he did it in good con- 
science, too. He courageously affirms in the presence of 
the ruling council of the Jews that he had lived in all good 
conscience until that day and certainly ever afterwards 
(Acts 23:1). He voluntarily undertook his errand to 
Damascus, conscientiously believing that it was God’s will. 
Of course, he learned of his mistake several days later. 
The memory of it fills his heart with grief and keeps him 
humble in after days. Speaking of his work of persecu- 
tion in writing to Timothy he says, “I obtained mercy, 
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (I Tim. 1:13). 
His guilt as a persecutor is not the guilt of a wilful sinner 
consciously fighting against remorse. Luke virtually tells 
us that Paul felt no remorse. Paul himself tells us that he 
felt none; he really believed that by persecuting the Chris- 
tians he was doing God a special service. He is ignorant 
of any admonitions of conscience urging him in an oppo- 
site direction. He is right in setting his face against the 
dangerous heresy. ‘That last persecuting journey is under- 
taken not to ease a disquieted and troubled conscience, but 
in response to a most pressing duty. And then something 
happened on the way. According to the Bible, Saul of 
Tarsus saw a supernatural light, heard a heavenly voice 
and engaged in a conversation of some length with the 
risen Christ. 

It has been urged that the whole experience was a de- 
lusion. He was blinded, it is said, not by a supernatural 
light, but by a flash of lightning. But, according to the 
account of the conversion given in the book of Acts, the 
light referred to was no flash of lightning. It is related 
that as Saul went on his journey and had now drawn near 
to Damascus, there shone round about him and his com- 
panions a light from heaven above the brightness of the 


444 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


noonday sun. The sun was shining at the time. The 
glorious light came out of a clear sky. The guardsmen, 
too, saw the light but not the risen Christ, who was in the 
light. They also heard a strange sound as of one speak- 
ing, but they did not understand what was said. All this 
happened in broad daylight, when the sun was shining. 
There was no deception about it, nor can it be said that it 
was a delusion. It was no hallucination, otherwise these 
matter-of-fact policemen could not have seen the wonder- 
ful light and heard the voice. That they did not see Jesus, 
who was in the light, or understand His words does not 
disprove that Paul saw Him and conversed with Him. 
The hallucination theory does not fit the facts: 

A more scientific method of approach to the problem is 
found in the attempt of the Ttbingen School to explain 
the conversion of Paul as a natural psychological process. 
But the psychological method of its foremost representa- 
tives does not solve the problem. It suffers from its own 
limitations. Before attempting to discuss the subject in 
all its phases, it starts out with the assumption that since 
miracles interfere with the continuity of natural develop- 
ment, the miraculous element must be ruled out of the 
discussion. ‘The argument is that since God does not in- 
tervene in human affairs now, the probability is that He 
has never done so in the past. God, in other words, is 
limited by the laws of nature and by His works of provi- 
dence; He works through natural means. Such a theory 
of the universe naturally rejects the idea of a miraculous 
and direct revelation of the risen Christ to Saul of Tarsus. 
The momentous event is resolved into an internal process, 
accompanied perhaps by favourable conditions from 
without. 

Baur, for instance, shifts the scene of the conversion 
from the outer sphere to the inner consciousness. He 
seizes with great eagerness upon the passage in Galatians 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 445 


1:16, where Paul speaks of his experience almost like a 
modern psychologist, as a revelation of the Son of God 
“in him.” According to the founder of the above- 
mentioned school, the revelation of Christ to Paul was not 
external, but internal; not objective in the philosophic 
sense, but subjective. It was a spiritual experience. Paul 
so regarded it in writing to the Galatian converts. But in 
speaking of the spiritual manifestation of Christ to the 
soul and the consequent change from spiritual darkness to 
light, Paul uses a number of figurative expressions which 
were translated by the author of Acts into the language of 
historical fact. The threefold narrative of it in Acts is 
the projection of an inner event into the sphere of objective 
reality. Paul’s conversion was not an instantaneous act. 
The inner change of mind in his case was gradually 
brought about by a process of reflection upon the argu- 
ments advanced by the Christians to prove the Messiah- 
ship of Jesus and by the moral effect of Stephen’s speech 
and martyrdom. Intellectually and morally Saul was pre- 
pared for a visionary sight of Jesus on the road to Damas- 
cus. No miracle was necessary. It was an internal or 
subjective vision and not an external appearance of the 
risen Lord. But what ground is there for this denial of 
the external side of Paul’s experience? The theory breaks 
down in the face of I Corinthians 9:1 and 15:8. Paul 
saw Jesus with his bodily eyes as the other apostles had 
seen Him after the resurrection. That it was the spiritual 
immaterial body of the risen Jesus does not alter the fact. 
It was the resurrection body of Jesus that he saw. But it 
was more than a spiritual experience. This is clear from 
the plain, matter-of-fact language, “ Am I not an apostle? 
Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? .. . Last of all, as to 
an abortion, He was seen of me also.” 

Paul’s apostleship rested on the historical fact of his 
having seen Jesus. He was a witness that Jesus was liv- 


446 THE 'ICALL ‘TO PROPHETIC SERVICE & 


ing) |: The \appearance’ was not visionary, but ‘actual. 
Paul’s change of conviction ‘and ‘conduct was'| not’ the’ 
product of an: intellectual: and ‘moral ‘fermentation, nor 
was the revelation of Christ to: him merely an inward! im-! 
pression made’ ion’ the mind of ithe persecutor! during’ a 
tratice or ecstasy.» Baur’s interpretation of the’ conversion 
will:not stand: the:test. The distinguished’ critic, after 
wrestling with the problem for many years; finally gave 
up the theory: as:a failure. » He: confessed;' shortly before 
his: death (1860) that: “no psychological or dialectical 
analysis can explore thé inner: mystery of the act m ‘which 
Godirévealed His Son tin: Paul: The sudden transforma-' 
tion of ‘Paul from the: most: violent: adversary: of Chris“ 
tianity into its most determined herald is: sane a wi 
a thiracle”’ (Christrantty, p45). fio tsank od P 

This statement by Baur is: rather: surprising in view: of 
his earlier denial of the possibility of 'the miraculous.’ | His 
frank admission virtually amounts to a recognition of the 
supernatutal,, But later; writers, ‘such as: Holsten: and: 
Pfleiderer, were not: satisfied ‘to ‘leave, the: problem | where; 
Baur had: left, it. Holsten,: in his elaborate:exposition :of) 
the: psychological process'which is supposed 'to-lie back of 
the ‘conversion;,.eliminates the; supernatural! by! resolving: 
the. Damascus experiencesinto a,change of conviction.as-to 
the meaning of the ctoss of; Christ.. To.the uriconverted, 
Pharisée: the, cross,was a stumbling-block which had, abso- 
lutely ino -place in; the.Jewish: conception! ofsthe Messiah, 
But jinereasing hostility to.this, despised) emblem! of a :supr 
posedly blasphemous sect; brought hint; into. direct! contact 
with ithe disciples; who defended themselves and; their, faith 
ity the. Crucified’ by ‘explaining the death, -of, Jesus,|as,a 
vicariots. means. of atonement) ‘The. Christ, of history, they 
contended, was the Suffering, Servant of. Isaiah fifty-three, 
Theycan point; to: -the -evidence.of,His,jresurrection, as a 
proof.ef His, Messiahship.,, There are those who-have,seen 


CALL OF -THE APOSTLE TO -GENTILES 447 


Him ‘with their owh eyes: before: He ascended'to heaven. 
Saul, of course,‘did not believe that ‘such was: actually the 
case. Nevertheless,’ the idea 'was in his mind and: the only 
obstacle:to his becoming a disciple was) a':vision of the 
risen Christ. : That vision finally:came to! the persecutor 
near;;Damascus.:, Holsten:admits that’ Paul regarded the 
vision as objectively real. ‘But in :view of the fact that a 
naturalistic historian cannot for a moment allow ithe: possi- 
bility ofthe» miraculous, the vision is represented as: a 
psychological act of: Saul’s mind. It is the: product of his 
own :thoughts..» The change: of:'which Paul speaks ‘was 
essentially: a change) of ‘conviction’ with \respect:'to ithe 
Christian: religion.. The longer! he thought about it’ the 
more he: was convinced! that ‘the faith of the disciples’ in 
the Messianic dignity of the crucified and risen Jesus was 
not’so foolish after all, especially when viewed in' the light 
of His resurrection,: '\The’reason’ why Paul regarded the 
vision: as'an ‘objective reality was because he failed to dis- 
tihguish a: mental ‘image from an'actual’ perception.) ‘He 
was visionary by nature. He was nervous, ‘easily over- 
wrought, ‘bilious, delicate, subject to epilepsy and’ ecstatic 
visions. »His:conversion was probably the first!of a series 
of ecstatic visions.: Fortunately; Holsten’ does not‘ insist 
on ithe truth df his solution ‘he merely looks upon -it'as\a 
possible explanation) (Evangelium des Paulus; 1868): 

- / Pfleiderer,; too; admits! the hypothetical character of his 
psychological explahatioii of Paul’s conversion. ° Theclaim 
isimade'that the! change of attitudeowas brought about not 
so much »by;amoral | impressiondas-by'aslowly' maturing 
intellectual «conviction that ‘the Christian jreligion repre- 
sented avhigher planecof truth than Judaism. /While:the 
passages in-d> Corinthians! 9: loand 15: 8:clearly’ indicate 
that ;Paub:was convinced of the! external: appearance of 
Christ: with: which: he was: favoured; hevalso’ intimatesin 
Galatians! do:16 and M> Corinthians:'4:6 that the: Christ- 


448 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


ophany was an inward experience. According to Pfleid- 
erer, the “goads” mentioned in Acts 26:14 furnish a 
psychological hint for a perfectly natural explanation of 
the great change in Paul’s life. Before his conversion, 
Saul was gradually coming nearer to Christianity. In- 
creasing doubts as to the wisdom of his persecuting activ- 
ity made him very unhappy. The Pharisee was impressed 
against his will whenever he came in contact with the re- 
markable heroism of these joyful martyrs going to their 
fate with a prayer of intercession upon their lips in behalf 
of their enemies. A-faith which produced such martyrs 
could hardly be a delusion. They spoke of the vicarious 
death of the Crucified for the sins of the world. Of 
course, if Jesus was an innocent Sufferer, as they had 
claimed, His death might atone for the sins of others just 
as the sufferings of a righteous man under the old dispen- 
sation would atone for the sins of the group to which he 
belonged, whether it be the household, clan, tribe or nation. 

Furthermore, the young zealot was greatly perplexed by 
the status of his own people. The Messiah, it was taught, 
could not come to an unrighteous nation. And so the 
Pharisees made every effort to prepare the people for His 
coming. But where is the righteous nation? Paul began 
to ask. Had the efforts of the Pharisees to lead the nation 
to righteousness gone for nought? Obviously more was 
needed than the Pharisaic ideal of legal righteousness. As 
to his own accomplishments in that direction the consci- 
entious young Pharisee had to confess that with al! his 
zeal for righteousness he had failed to conquer his own 
sinful desires (Rom. 7). On the basis of the tenth com- 
mandment, which demands the conquest of every selfish 
desire, he began to realize that righteousness was some- 
thing more than the fulfilment of mere external require- 
ments. In looking over the ten commandments, he could 
say of all except the tenth, “all these have I kept from my 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 449 


youth up.” That commandment troubled and worried 
him more than all the rest. Ifa man is to be saved by the 
works of the law he must keep not fifty-one per cent. of 
the law, but the whole of it. And Paul was conscious of 
having broken the law in the unseen depths of the soul. 
He no longer thought of sin as an external act. The seat 
of sin is in the heart. Covetousness is sin. Saul could not 
keep this part of the decalogue. He could not get rid of 
covetousness, evil thoughts and sinful desires. Even when 
he did not actually break the letter of the law, he found 
himself wanting to do so, and that he knew was wrong. 
The discovery filled him with discouragement and some- 
times with despair. The law might command, but it could 
not secure performance, owing to the weakness and sin- 
fulness of human nature. Something more is needed to 
make a man righteous than the precepts and rules of 
Jewish law. 

May it not be possible, he argued, that what the law 
could not do might be accomplished through faith in Jesus 
Christ and a life of fellowship with Him? This, at least, 
is what the disciples claimed for their religion. They 
seemed to have something that he did not posses. They 
had a buoyant, dynamic faith in the risen Christ. That 
faith of theirs was based on the fact that they had seen 
Jesus after the resurrection. If it is true that Jesus rose 
from the dead and was exalted to the right hand of God, 
then the death of Jesus must have been vicarious and faith 
in Him as the Messiah is the divinely ordained means of 
salvation. Being thus occupied with his thoughts on the 
lonely road to Damascus, the image of the crucified Jesus 
suddenly presented itself to his inner consciousness. To 
him the image of the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
heaven was familiar enough (Dan. 7:13). Such a mental 
picture might easily be connected in Paul’s mind with the 
image of the risen Jesus. Toward the end of the mo- 


450 -~THE CALL) TO) PROPHETIC! SERVICE) 


mentous |journeyithe image of the» celestial Christ had 
already, taken! such hold. upon the: |pétsecutor) that all 
further resistance was of noavaih:: Pfleiderer believes that 
the. decisive event can ‘be explained without aimiracle.:) “It 
appears 'to. me,’ hé says, {that we are!in:a position to ‘per- 
ceive fiilly theiamental condition ‘and circumstances) from 
which the! vision of Paulscan be psychologically explained: 
an ‘excitable, riervous !temperarhent; aisoul that had been 
violently, agitated:and torn ‘by, the most terrible doubts; a 
most’ vivid) phantasy, occupied with ‘thé awful: scenes of 
persecution onthe one hand, and on the) other iby the ideal 
image of the:celestial Christ; in addition,’ the nearness ‘of 
Damascus with the: urgency: of:a decision, thé lonely: still 
ness, the. scorching and’ blinding» heat: of the desert—in 
fact, everything combined to produce one of those ecstatic 
stateg:in whichithe»soul believes that it sees those: images 
and conceptions which profoundly agitate it asi if they 
were, phenomena proceeding from: the otittward world” 
(The Influence: of the sfledife Pasl : on) asabieionce 1897, 
pagés) 42-43). t fii eid 

The papell catal ‘neprigs uavuuke by Holster. and 
Pfleiderer vhave mtch in }common) and. betraly the» same 
wedkness.:'To,assume;at the very outset that God cannot 
reveal, Himself to man except through the ordinary ‘pro- 
cesses of human, development and to:approach the decisive 
eventjin Paul’s life from the point of view of the, impossi- 
bility of. the, miraculous is utterly, unscientific... Prejudice 
is not science,.|)/Do, limit the! discussion | tosthe sphere of 
the matural,and to relegate Paul’s testimony and. every- 
thing else bordering onthe supernatural to, the realm of 
the imaginary, is prejudicial to: truth. Any thinking) man 
will’, welcome .a psychological analysis! of the momentous 
scene, provided it is: in harmony, with, all the facts:in the 
casei; ‘The raw. materials of conversion’ do-not.explain; the 
crisis.; Physical factors may fill,in the background, but 


CALL (OF THE APOSTLE: TOIGENTILES 451 


they, didnot, produce the change. | Neither, did) it ptoceea 
fromthe laboratory.of Saul’s own thoughts:; There isono 
indication, anywhere that, Saul) had. been) favourably: :im- 
pressed ;with the religion of/ the Galilzan Prophet and that 
he, was thinking of Jesus when he drew near ito| Damascus. 
If -he-thought..of Him, at all he thought, of Him) ias an 
enemy .of,.the faith which he cherished -with:all his heart. 
And that is why he, persecuted Jesus,in His disciples:;, His 
state.of mind was not likely, to give birth to a visiam so 
fatal.to his,career.|, He’ expressly denies that he hadi been 
previously -won. ower, by, Christian, |teaching | which. later 
crystallized into.a vision,of, Christ... Human instruction 
had) no. part inthe foundation of his faith;, By saying,this 
we, do) not mean. to, imply that. Saul, the | Pharisee. was 
totally ignorant,,of,.the life and.,teachings .of Jesus, -es- 
pecially, when.the outlines, of, Jesus’, life, and),d 

known to friend, and foe alike. It.is, scarcely, wbN ce el 
that the chief. persecutor.of the Christians.could bear wit- 
ness, to, the; blasphemous) character) of, their, doctrines and 
cast his vote against them, en a life and. death issue, with- 
out, knowing anything about them) and of, their jhistory. 
But) whatever knowledge he may haye had of the Christian 
moyement, only, increased. his opposition, to the worship- 
pers of.a) supposedly, false; Messiah., He, really persecuted 
the, Christians because he saw more clearly. Han they. did 
At it would;mean for the Jewish, neligion, 2)! / 

. The great,change.in. Paul’s life) did,mot lie inj the ne 
region. There is no proof.for the, assertion that; Saul was 
under, real conviction.of sin: before his. conversion, and that 
the inner, conflict between the: right moral intention and the 
natural. impulses, ,alluded..to in| the, seventh. chapter., of 
Romans, is.aibiegraphical.leaf, fromthe writer’s Pharisaic 
experience.) ,.Men,,may | differ vas }to, whether the struggle, 
there referred ‘to, relates to the unregenerate)or the regen- 
erate life. , Ini;any| event.the conflict between) the higher 


452 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


and the lower nature of man is described from the point of 
view of the regenerate. Paul’s contrast between flesh and 
spirit, between the down-dragging, hindering power of sin 
and the life-giving spirit of the indwelling Christ, is cer- 
tainly a Christian development, whatever may have been 
his attitude toward the Jewish law while on a mission of 
persecution to Damascus. His conversion cannot be at- 
tributed to a changed attitude toward the law and to a 
growing conviction that the Christian way of attaining 
righteousness was the true one. We do not deny that the 
young Pharisee may have been conscious of his own short- 
comings. But his failure to keep the whole law did not 
drive him into the Christian fold. On the contrary; if the 
unconverted Pharisee was at all conscious of his failings, 
the deficiency could be made up by redoubled zeal for the 
law. What could be more meritorious from the stand- 
point of the Jewish law than the persecution of a blas- 
phemous and seditious sect? He must have been familiar 
with the consoling doctrine, taught by some of the rabbis, 
that ultimate salvation is assured as long as fifty-one per 
cent. of a man’s deeds are good. Any deficiency in his 
case, therefore, would be more than overbalanced by a 
specially meritorious act of service to religion. At all 
events, he was actuated by an honest striving after right- 
eousness. He was fully convinced that he ought to oppose 
with all his might the cause of Christianity. And from 
what we know of his character we cannot believe that he 
plunged into the work of persecution to satisfy an uneasy 
conscience or because he was fighting against a better con- 
viction. His complete sincerity would not have permitted 
him to persecute those by whom he was favourably im- 
pressed. He was too honest a man for that. Had he 
thought for a moment that salvation was not a work of 
merit but of forgiving grace he would have made the 
experiment and convinced himself. That the vision which 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 453 


he saw sprang from a desire to make the venture, runs 
counter to what we know of the man. 

From a mental and moral point of view Saul’s condition 
before conversion was not favourable to a vision of Jesus. 
The accusing voice of the heavenly Speaker puzzles him. 
He is obliged to ask the question, ‘ Who art Thou, 
Lord?” and then receives the startling reply, “I am Jesus 
whom thou persecutest.” Why was he so puzzled? Be- 
cause he had been serving God after the manner of his 
fathers with a pure conscience. His work of persecution 
was the logical outcome of his zealous devotion to the Jew- 
ish religion. Something awful had to happen before the 
conscientious bigot could become an apostle of the faith 
which he was about to destroy. His introduction to Chris- 
tianity came at an unexpected time (I Cor. 15:8). A 
violent operation was necessary before the sprouting 
branch could be torn from the sour grape-vine of a legal- 
istic religion and grafted into Christ the Vine. 

To treat the conversion solely as an inner spiritual 
development is inconsistent with I Corinthians. The en- 
deavour to find some inner connection between the Da- 
mascus experience and Paul’s life before and after it is 
commendable, especially on the basis of Galatians 1: 16. 
But as there are two series of facts to be reckoned with, 
any attempted explanation of the event which limits itself 
to only one side of the question, is destined to fail. To 
eliminate the supernatural from the discussion on the plea 
of psychological necessity simply means that psychology is 
not competent to deal with such a complex experience. It 
is high time to admit that a purely psychological analysis 
of the event has its limitations. The supernatural element 
in Paul’s experience seems to baffle our psychologists. 
The best that they can do with it is to leave it alone. And 
as regards the psychological problem of the conversion 
itself the tendency is to dismiss the subject with a few 


454 ~THE CALL )TO: PROPHETIC;SERVICE) 


general, observations about the secret, of personality. which 
no psychological key:can asi yet disclose to our gaze,).,But 
the supernatural factor, is;there;and we must-reckon with 
ityesA (gradual psychological, process, is ruled out by, ithe 
emphatic: language ofthe Pauline Epistles. » It-as impos- 
siblé' to, account forthe sudden: change except: by supeér- 
natural, means, ' The: physical, mental,, moral and spiritual 
equipment ofthe cdnverted |Pharisee: and his; whole previ- 
ous development! doesnot explain it... We. can:teadily :see 
thatthe leader of, a well-planned. persecution would learn 
many, things. concerning the Christians and ‘their, Messiah, 
birt whatever facts: he! may have acquired) in this:way did 
not bring about-the:conversion.' The Damascus experience 
transformed: and) glorified these-facts :and: gave them, an 
entirely. different | setting. |.On. that; memorable.day the 
convert, received a’ néw interpretation of the facts) aridia 
new, attitude toward. them. ., The, cause of the conversion 
was an external appearante of Jesus which. picks inva 
spiritual union with: the ‘risen Christ.) hg 

» <The itheory. that Paul’s vision:of: Jesus was ara peat of 
overwrought. nerves, of;an ecstatic temperament, of,a;re- 
current ‘malady.,or) constitutional weakness, such as) epi- 
lepsy, iswntenable. -: Any, man who jtakes the trouble,.to 
read his: Epistles will find it increasingly difficult to-accuse 
the apostle ofj,epileptic insanity. :It; is, impossible: to /be- 
lieve that wejare dealing withan epileptic lunatic, and. that 
his;new allegiance was.due,to.an illusion, The impression 
that, we get from Paul’s writings is that: he was a'healthy 
mans he; critical, eye Jooks: in vain \for, any particular 
trait, ai amight. betray; the, flickering, unrest;,of, a. sick 
soul..,| He was, endowed: with good ,common, sense and; the 
usual, |characteristics! of ‘a normal, man,.'The only, differ- 
ence between him:and the average/man, seems) ta ;be that the 
took. his religion, more! seriously. than, the, rank, and, file. 
The .spiritual,.sanity..of this. many-sided-.man is! beyend 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE | TO'GENTILES 455 


question: |He may ‘have had his visions, revelations, ‘and 
tranees, as: he ‘himself relates in II Corinthians 12. But 
Paul) distinguishes these experiences! very: sharply from 
the Damascus experience and frony his! seeing of the Lord 
to: which | hé: refers in I! Corinthians. |. It. was’ something 
unique.': This seeing of Jesus was the last Of a series of 
resurrection appearances. It:was the last appearance of 
the kind to take place. . Paul never speaks of: seeing Jesus 
again. It was the only, time that’ he! had. actirallys seen ithe 
arisen) Christ.))/\Itwas':no mere:-dream,: but:.a (‘Swaking 
vision.” in broad: daylight. -It.was nota nightmare or'a 
daydream either... Neither: was it a méntal image: of : his 
own reflections, for:he puts it on a: par with the resurrec- 
tion appeatances of) Jesus to the first disciples. He:is no 
visionary enthusiast’) who cannot ) distinguish between .an 
ecstatic rapture and aj) real appearance).of Christ. to. his 
physical eyés.;o The’ visions! and revelations spoken of in 
Ii, €orinthians belong:to the apostle’s private and personal 
life and'‘concetn: him: alone, He. is: reluctant to speak of 
them. But. the Damdscus experience, stands by .itself and 
belongs toa different order of facts., It is part.of, the evi- 
dence for the resurrection of Christ, and so he speaks. of it 
with. the ‘same confidence with, which, the disciples related 
the iresurrection appearances of Jesus ; avi shes them- 
selves; had ‘witnessed, r FO : 
» Paul may not have known atigihing) aheat the basbnie 
a ‘experimental psychology. But even if hedid: live in, the 
first} century he had enough common jsense to be able to 
distinguish; between an objectively jreal experience! anda 
mental picture thrown’ on.the retina of the eye from within 
in consequence..of some pathological condition or psychical 
emotion) .t certainly requiresa large measure of, credulity 
to! believe) that’ the , gifted, Pharisee could: be -deluded and 
anisled, bya purely imaginary experience when, there was 
so much at. stake..;The man who jhad learned to, do some 


456 THE CALL TO PROPHETIC SERVICE 


of his own thinking while sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, 
is no dweller in a fool’s paradise of thought and feeling. 
He was not altogether devoid of the critical faculty, as 
may be seen from his advice to the Thessalonians, who are 
bidden to “ prove all things,” and hold fast only that which 
is good (I Thess. 5:1). Now, to a zealous Pharisee bent 
on destroying the Christians, a vision of Jesus was not 
“good” in any sense. It was the worst thing that could 
happen to him and to the faith which he cherished and 
defended with such consuming zeal. Would a man of his 
standing and with his powers of discrimination take up a 
most perilous calling in the interests of a despised and 
hated sect, unless there was some cogent and convincing 
reason for so doing? It is assumed that he only imagined 
that he saw Jesus. But is it reasonable to suppose that a 
fanatical persecutor of Christianity could also imagine a 
conversation of some length which would completely 
reverse his present course? According to the vision- 
hypothesis, Saul must have had some faith in Christ and 
His cause before he was converted, otherwise he would 
not have been in the proper frame of mind to imagine that 
he saw Jesus. 

But this is mere guess-work. The evidence shows that 
his faith in Christ was engendered by the vision and not 
vice versa. If the vision was the product of a growing 
faith in the Christian religion, how did he acquire it? 
Must we assume that it was connected with his physiolog- 
ical makeup? There is no evidence to show that Paul was 
an epileptic, and that the strain of his persecuting activity 
completely unnerved him. He had but one desire and that 
was to exterminate the Christians. As a persecutor he 
was impervious to any evidence coming from a Christian 
source. His mind was fully made up and he knew what 
he was about. The educated Pharisee could learn nothing 
from the ignorant followers of a Man who had never 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 457 


attended a rabbinical college. They may be courageous 
and all that, but any courage which is begotten of fanati- 
cism does not impress him. Judaism will evoke as much 
heroism as Christianity any day. A loyal Jew has some- 
thing to be heroic about; these deluded people have 
nothing to look forward to but a cross. They speak of a 
resurrection and set up the preposterous claim that some 
of their members have seen Him. But these are the bab- 
blings of a lot of simple-minded and credulous people. 
That this Jesus will appear only to those who believe in 
Him is enough for Saul of Tarsus. He will not believe, he 
says. He is absolutely convinced that these alleged resur- 
rection appearances are nothing but a pure fabrication. 
The power of the resurrection in the transformed lives of 
his victims does not attract him; it nauseated him and 
stirred his ire to think that human beings could fall so low 
as to forsake the true faith for the blasphemous religion of 
a condemned criminal. Something else is needed to con- 
vert him. And he saw and believed. What had hap- 
pened? The persecutor was suddenly converted and 
transformed into a believer by the heavenly vision. 

That he had actually seen Jesus with his own eyes, heard 
His voice and conversed with Him at some length is as 
clear to him as his own existence. He alludes to the super- 
natural light which at high noon outshone even the sun. 
Presently the prostrate man hears a voice calling to him 
and saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” 
The prostrate man looks up and in the light he sees a 
more than human Form. He asks, “ Who art Thou, 
Lord?” and receives the reply, “I am Jesus whom thou 
persecutest.” Continuing the conversation the Master en- 
trusts him with a universal mission. Paul, the apostle, is 
to bear witness of what he has seen and heard. In Acts 
9:7 it is said that his companions remained “ speechless, 
hearing the voice but beholding no man.” This implies 


458 “THE CALL TO \PROPHETIC SERVICE) 


that» Paul did/see somebody. Reading between the! hnes, 
we learn thattit.was:Jésus,, LatersAnanias comés to him 
and: tells him,that he had! been chosen of: God‘ to: see the 
Righteous One ‘and to hear) His: voice.””: And in: I: Co 
rinthians Paul 'says'in so many. words, “I:saw the Lord as 
the other; disciples had seen:Him/ after the! resurrection,” 
In: presenting Paul:to the apostles at Jerusalem, Barnabas 
emphatically «declared that “‘he:had seén the Lord in ithe 
way and that he:had spoken to: Him’? (Acts.9:27). . Paul 
never doubted: for a moment) that he had actually seen the 
risen’ Christ: and heard~ His commissioning voice. ‘The 
evidence, it’ ‘is said; only ‘proves that’ Paul believed in the 
reality ofthe manifestation;and that in J, Corinthians he 
seems td) have ini mind: a) real) bodily appearance of sthe 
risen\ Christi: which she :associates: with -his, apostleship) 
That evidence, however, cannot be set aside in favour of 
a one-sided: natural; interpretation. It.is| sufficient; for our 
present purpose, in view of the confessed: Sabha re om siti 
eae to explain the conversion., : mid ti9y 

ols it notva: remarkable fact that of the tate Poutida men 
coming from, Cilicia! and ,elsewhere to,:complete: their 
studies: in-the schooli of the ‘most. illustrious: Phariseé of 
the: age: sine one, | paul of: bar ea had: beth sDamascust 
was the es ON st He thes inéligiog of tlie Thageee 
If: the:new ‘birth had its-roots inva “liberal Judaism,” why 
is‘it thatthe teachings of Gamaliel did not-produce,another 
Saul? Was'the young Cilician the only. graduate who had 
caught the spirit of his great teacher? .H, that is:so,swhy . 
did not:the liberal teacher aridoother liberals,come outyinto 
the open/ and’ take the same -step:?,| Did Saul’ deliberately 
rendunce-the Jewish religion because’ of a growing convie- 
tion that the Pharisees,were, wrong in their-anterpretation 
of.feligion ‘and, that, the. disciples. were! right ?,; The sudden 
break; with | Judaism, is -agaitist, such an assumption, ‘as is 


CALL OF THE APOSTLE TO GENTILES 459 


also the fact that the young theologian could not have 
committed the unpardonable sin of having carried on the 
persecution in the face of better convictions. According 
to his own emphatic words, his conversion was no gradual 
development, but a sudden break with all his past think- 
ing. He actually cites his Pharisaic training and bias to 
show that the momentous change was not due to human 
agency, but to a direct revelation from Christ. It is im- 
possible to explain the conversion of a man like Paul 
by his past. As a fact of religious experience, it stands 
quite alone in the history of Christianity. The nearest 
approach to it is the conversion of Augustine (386 A. D.), 
who, at the age of thirty-three, had his Damascus experi- 
ence under a fig tree in a garden near Milan. Saul, the 
persecutor, was about the same age when he fell prostrate 
on the ground near the gardens of Damascus, suddenly 
exclaiming, ‘“ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” 
And he is told to make known to all the world what he has 
seen and heard. This is the task of every disciple of the 
risen and ever-present Christ. 


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